The Early Years
by GeekyLola
Summary: This a a prequel to Evelyn's Story. Enjoy all the wonderful moments of Evie growing up with her father and brother and finally see how she met her three best friends! I promise lots of fluffy sibling moments and more hints to the secrets surrounding her birthmark...or is it a scar?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I'm sorry for what will probably more SPaG errors than usual. I have no beta for this story.**

* * *

Amos Diggory held in his arms a baby girl. She was about a year old with tufts of auburn hair, freckles and hazel eyes. Holding her gently, he rocked her and smiled. She cooed back at his caring face and giggled. His heart melted at her smile. His daughter was perfect.

"She's alright then? There won't be any ill effects from what happened?" Amos looked up at the Pediatric Healer who had been looking her over.

"She's got that crescent shaped mark, and I can't tell if it's a birthmark or a scar, but other than that she's perfectly healthy. It's a miracle," the healer smiled down at the girl. "Oh, and I was told to give you this letter." He reached into his robes and pulled out a sealed envelope, "He said there are some very important things you should know." The man's face became solemn as Amos took the letter from him.

Amos nodded and pocketed the letter. He then bade the healer farewell and took the floo home. He was immediately greeted by Ms. Ferguson, who watched Cedric while he was at work. She smiled but then halted in her usual greeting when she noticed the bundle he held.

"Is tha' a babe?"Ms. Ferguson was not as old as most of the nannies for hire in the Wizarding World, with black hair that had not yet gone grey and barely a wrinkle in sight. Amos liked that about her because it meant she had the energy to keep up with Cedric, which meant he was usually tuckered out by the time Amos got home from work.

"Yes, would you mind holding her for just a moment?" Amos handed the small girl off.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the envelope he'd been given. He opened it gingerly, noticing in that moment that is was too bulky to only hold a letter. He pulled the letter out first and began reading it.

"Wha's her name?" Ms. Ferguson asked, pulling Amos' concentration from the letter. He'd finished reading it twice when he finally looked up at her. At his questioning gaze Ms. Ferguson chuckled. "Her name, Mr. Diggory? I can' jus' call her babe, now can I?" She joked.

"Ah, quite right, Mary. It's Evelyn, Evelyn Rose," Amos answered, glancing down at the letter once more. When he looked up again, he was smiling. Then he tilted the last contents of the envelope into his hand. A silver oval-shaped locket, bearing intricate filigree landed there softly.

"Tha's a lovely name, Mr. Diggory," Mary smiled as she looked down that Evelyn, but looked up again when she remembered something. "I don' remember you saying you had two children? I've been looking after Cedric almost a year now and she hasn' been mentioned once."

"Evie's been in the hospital this whole time. I doubt Cedric remembers he was supposed to be a big brother, and in case she didn't make it," Amos paused again, pocketing the locket for the time being. "I just didn't want to get him excited if it happened that she wasn't going to be coming home."

"I understand," Mary nodded with a comforting smile. "Well, he's goin' tah be very happy tah meet you, sweet girl," she smiled down at Evie.

"Meet who?" Cedric came rushing in from his room carrying the broom he'd received for Christmas the previous year. "Dad!" He yelled excitedly, before rushing Amos, nearly tackling him to the ground with the force of his hug.

"Whoa!" Amos laughed at his son's excitement. "Calm down, mate."

He hugged Cedric and then gently pulled the boy off of his legs. Kneeling down to be face to face with the boy he started explaining, "You know how you've always wanted to be a big brother?"

Cedric's kind brown eyes widened as he focused on his dad. He nodded gingerly, waiting to hear more.

"Well, Mummy left us one last present," Amos smiled sadly.

"She did?" Cedric started to get more hopeful.

"That's right. You are a big brother," Amos explained, turning Cedric's attention to the bundle in Ms. Ferguson's arms.

Ms. Ferguson brought the baby eye level to the wonderstruck boy. Cedric gasped at as he made eye contact with the small girl. "She's pretty," he whispered. "What's her name?"

"She's called Evie," Ms. Ferguson answered. "Would you like tah hold her?"

"Can I?" Cedric turned to his father for confirmation.

"Go on, just be gentle," Amos nodded. Cedric took Evie very carefully from Ms. Ferguson. But she stayed with her hands bracing his.

"Hi, Evie," Cedric whispered to the baby girl. She looked up at his face and smiled, reaching a chubby hand out to him. Cedric laughed excitedly at her reaction.

"Now, Cedric," Amos called his attention. When Cedric looked up at him with earnest eyes Amos continued, "You are a big brother now and that means it's your job to keep Evie safe, okay? You must always take care of your sister."

Cedric nodded enthusiastically before turning back to Evie, who was still smiling up at him. "I will always take care of you," he leaned down and whispered at her.

* * *

A week after Evie arrived at Diggory Cottage Cedric awoke to the sounds of her crying in her crib. Amos had not been alerted to the noise yet, so the small boy climbed from his bed and padded into the nursery.

Inside the noise was louder. Cedric was shocked by how much noise the small girl could make. He hurried over to the crib and peered through the slats of oak at the cause of all the fussing. Evie was red faced and covered in tears.

"Shh," Cedric reached a small hand through the wood and touched Evie's tiny hand. The small girl began to calm down instantly. Her eyes opened and she looked towards Cedric. She was still whining though, so Cedric climbed up into the crib and sat down beside her. "It's okay, baby," he continued to whisper as he petted her head.

Soon her cries were nothing more than sniffles as she looked wide-eyed up at him. Cedric offered her his finger and she grasped it with her chubby hand and wiggled it around. When she saw that he would let her do whatever with it she pulled it to her mouth and chomped on it with her gums.

"Ew," Cedric giggled, removing the finger from Evie's mouth. She giggled right back at him, reaching her hand for his finger again. Smiling, Cedric kissed her head, "I won't let the monsters get you," he promised.

They fell asleep in the crib together, and when Amos went to gather his children he was quite surprised to find them still there, cuddled up and sound asleep.

* * *

It had been a very bad week at work and all Amos wanted to do, when he stepped out of the floo into Diggory Cottage that Friday, was get the children in bed as quickly as possible, have a glass of Firewhiskey and sleep. "I'm back, Mary!" He called through the house when he was not immediately greeted.

"Dad!" Cedric ran up to him more excited than usual.

Before Amos could request that his son calm down, as he usually did, Mary walked out smiling with an excitement matching Cedric's and carrying his very proud looking little girl.

"Mr. Diggory, yeh'll never guess wha' she's done!" She breathed out, nearly bursting at the seams.

"What is it? She hasn't walked, has she?" Amos asked fearfully.

"No, not yet," Mary instantly became more subdued as she eased his worry. "She's said her firs' word, she did!" She explained, gaining her previous excitement back instantly.

Amos turned his attention instantly from Mary to Evie. She was still smiling, though he wasn't sure she actually knew what all the excitement was about, just that it had to do with something she'd done.

"My little girl," he reached for her and Mary handed her over willingly. "Have you something to say?" He smiled in anticipation.

"Go on, little love, speak for yer father," Mary coaxed excitedly.

"Da," Evie started as though she was feeling it out. "Dada, dada, dada, dada!" She grew more excited the more she spoke the word, clapping her chubby little hands together and smiling at him.

Tears of joy welled up in his eyes as Amos felt all the tiredness and all the frustration of the week wash away at the sound of his daughter's voice. "Who is Dada?"

Evie touched her chubby and slightly sticky hand to his face somewhere between his cheek and nose before smiling. "Dada," she answered as happy as ever.

"That's right," Amos blinked rapidly to clear the tears from his eyes, but one still escaped, rolling quickly down his cheek and disappearing onto his work robes.

* * *

"Dad, why does Evie put her mouth on everything?" Cedric asked, frowning as he learned that his toy wand was covered in baby drool.

"She's teething," Amos explained, cleaning the wand with a wave of his.

"What does that mean?"

Amos smiled at his son. The boy always wanted to understand. "It means she's getting her teeth."

"Like mine?" Cedric opened his mouth wide to show his father.

"Like yours," Amos confirmed. "But she doesn't know how to use them yet, and she's practicing on things so she can figure them out."

"So why can't she bite her own things?" Cedric frowned, still not quite understanding.

"Well, she can. And she does," Amos pointed to Evie, who was drooling all over one of the baby toys Mary had bought for her. "But teething also hurts, and sometimes she can't get to her stuff fast enough so she grabs whatever is near."

Cedric's eyes instantly filled with concern as he looked at his baby sister. She had just dropped her gel ring and was close to tears. He looked down at his toy wand and then held it out to her. Amos just looked on in shock as his son handed over his favorite toy.

"Here, Evie. You can use my toys too," he told her as though she'd understand. Evie took the wand and brought it towards her mouth, stopping and looking at her brother as if to ask if he was sure it was okay, and when he nodded she smiled and gnawed happily on it.

* * *

"Happy Birthday, Evie!" Amos, Cedric and Mary called in unison.

The cake, pastel pink and holding two happily glowing candles, was sitting on the table out of the young girl's reach. Amos held his daughter in his arms, a joyous smile accentuating the wrinkles of his face as they sang Happy Birthday to her. In the back of his mind a guilty feeling nagged at him, but watching how happy his two children had been together that past year made him toss it aside.

"Make a wish, Evie," Cedric smiled excitedly.

Being as perfectly content as she was the small girl closed her eyes only because she was sure it was a birthday obligation. She had watched her father do this on his birthday after prompting from Cedric as well.

"Alrigh' sweet girl, blow out yer candles," Ms. Ferguson coaxed and Amos leaned Evie over the cake.

Evie's tiny huff of air was hardly enough to make the candles even flicker. With Amos covertly blowing beside her, however, she watched in amazement as she managed to blow her candles out.

She looked at Cedric excitedly and pointed to her achievement. "I bowed it!"

Cedric smiled at his sister's attempt to form sentences, and nodded to let her know he'd watched. When Ms. Ferguson took Evie from their dad's arms and placed her in her baby chair, Amos turned to Cedric and winked at him, a silent thanks for not telling Evie he'd helped.

Amos and Mary passed out the cake and their small group ate as Cedric told his father all the things that he and Evie had done that day. He seemed more excited than his sister, even though she'd been the one receiving presents all day.

After Cedric had tuckered himself out and Evie had managed to cover most of her face with cake, Ms. Ferguson stood up and made her way to the young girl.

"Come on little love, let's get you cleaned up," she cooed to the small girl.

"No," Evie fussed back, not wanting to leave her cake.

"No? Well, I suppose tha's too bad, innit?" Mary smiled at the pouting face of the birthday girl. "Wha' if Cedric came with us?"

Evie pursed her lips in actual consideration, then nodded her head in one over exaggerated motion. "Yes." Ms. Ferguson motioned for Cedric to come as well and he complied easily. Amos smiled after them before setting to work on cleaning the kitchen.

A week and a half later, when Amos returned home from work, he was bombarded by his son as usual. However, the boy carried with him some surprising news.

"Someone sent Evie chocolate, but it wasn't one of those owls Aunt Perry always sends with all her weird foods," Cedric scrunched his nose. "They are late too; it's not her birthday anymore." His scrunched nose was replaced by an amused face, as though the idea of someone sending a gift late was just too ridiculous to fathom.

"Tha's not nice," Ms. Ferguson reprimanded coming up to calm Cedric. "But he's righ' Mr. Diggory. Someone sent Evie some chocolates, but they didn' tell us who they were. I haven' let her have 'em; figured yeh'll be wantin' teh look 'em over."

"Yes, thank you, Mary."

Ms. Ferguson finished detaching Cedric from Amos and went to get the aforementioned gift. Once she had brought it to him she picked up Evie, who had crawled over to greet her father as well and called for Cedric to follow. The three of them left Amos alone in the living room, as they got cleaned up and ready for dinner.

Amos sat down and silently stared at the package of chocolates that had come. He had not said a single word since it had found its way into his hands. He could not fathom who it was from, and the only thing the package itself said was 'Happy Birthday Evelyn Rose' in beautiful looping cursive. Ripping the packaging to shreds he looked at the unassuming sweets and then decided he did not want to know from where they had come. The lack of last name upon the wrapping set his hands to shaking and he decided to be rid of them quickly. He tossed them into the still roaring fire, along with their wrapping and the next morning he informed Ms. Ferguson that if Evie were ever to receive another package such as that one she was to do the same.

From that year on about nine days after they celebrated Evie's birthday a package of chocolates would arrive for her, always bearing the same birthday wishes, and every time it was tossed into the fire, while Evie remained none the wiser.

* * *

"Oh, not again. Evie!" Mary Ferguson was reaching her wits end with all the uncontrollable magic flying around the house. Cedric, the sweet boy, was an excellent student. He learned very quickly to control his outbursts and desires. He was quick to calm and eager to please and that helped tremendously. The boy really was the most well behaved six year old she'd ever been nanny to.

Evie, on the other hand, was only three. Her magical accidents often involved phantom music and books floating around the room. The girl didn't understand why her magic was a problem, especially when it brought her so much joy.

Mary did not find as much joy in walking face first into floating books. She grabbed hold of the old Beetle the Bard tales and sighed. She was not even slightly surprised. Evie had fallen in love with The Fountain of Fair Fortune and Mary often found it to be the book floating from the shelf and through the house. She carried the book into the kitchen where Cedric sat at the table working on his letters as Evie watched intently, still too young to be trusted with a quill.

"You've been calling fer books again, haven' yah?" Mary fussed, eyeing the young girl.

Evie looked down and bit her lip. Cedric looked up from his letters and turned to Evie. "You know Ms. Ferguson doesn't like when you do that."

Evie pouted more as she received reprimand from two separate places. "I dint mean it," she responded to Cedric.

"You didn'?" Mary eyed her, knowing very well she had. "Then why are yah bitin' yer lip, eh? You always do tha' when yer lyin.'" Evie immediately removed her lip from under her teeth, but it was too late. She knew she'd been caught and sighed.

"Sowwy."

"Yer goin' tah be the death of me, little love," Mary sighed, shaking her head but using her endearment just the same to let the small girl know she was not as mad as she seemed.

* * *

Christmas came quickly that year, bringing to the English countryside thick blankets of white. Evie woke early on the morning after the first snow. When she climbed from her bed and landed bum first onto the plush cream carpet of her floor she found the air cold and unwelcoming, but the vast white of the field beyond her yard had mesmerized her and she walked trance-like to the window beside her wardrobe.

"Wow." She breathed in awe as her hazel eyes widened, the tiny green flecks catching the early morning sunlight and dancing through her irises. After she finished taking in the scene her excitement over took her and she rushed on tiny feet from her room her brother's. "Wake up!" She yelled, pouncing on the bundle of quilt and flesh.

"Ow!" Cedric jumped up immediately, which caused her to lose balance and tumble back to the floor with a resounding thud and a barely audible 'oof'.

The thick quilt that had been covering Cedric followed her to the floor and covered her as her brother sat trying to understand what had just hit him. When he turned and found a bundle of quilt moving, understanding and annoyance colored his face. He yanked the quilt off of the smiling face of his sister and glared back at her.

"That hurt!"

"Sowwy." She continued to smile, almost to the point of giggles.

"You are not," he grumbled, but pulled her up anyway, and helped her climb back onto his bed. "What do you want?" Cedric kept his bothered tone as she situated herself and brushed a confused mess of hair from her face.

"It snowed!"

"Really?" He perked up for a moment, before remembering he was still upset with her. "So?"

"Can we go play?" She asked hopefully.

"You hurt me."

"I'm weally, weally sowwy!" Evie forced her sorriest face and waited.

Cedric watched her, making her wait a good five minutes before giving in. He reasoned to himself he only really gave in because he wanted to go outside too, but that was probably only part of it. "Fine, let's get Dad."

They climbed from his bed together and Evie grabbed his hand as they walked down the hall to their father's room. The door was closed, as usual, but the sound of his snoring couldn't be heard inside. Cedric opened the door and peeked inside, then slowly walked in, Evie in tow. Being in their father's room was a rare occurrence.

The walls of Amos' room were a pale yellow, with the same plush white carpet that lined the floors of all the bedrooms in the Diggory house. His bed bore a heavy blue quilt and beige sheets. On the mahogany bedside table sat his wand, a glass half full of water and a candid photo in a silver frame. It showed Amos and Alison, their mother, laughing at their wedding. In the coming years Evie would spend many moments studying this picture.

The two young children approached their father's bed hesitantly, Evie standing behind Cedric the whole time. Even though he was not snoring, Amos did appear to be deeply asleep.

"Dad?" Cedric whispered as they moved closer. "Dad," he repeated with just a hint more confidence. They continued slow and silent steps steadily closer to the bed.

Finally, when they were no more than two inches from his face and Evie had at last stepped from behind her brother, Amos' eyes flew open and he let out a small roar which was met by shocked and amused shrieks from his children. As they turned to flee he reached out one large hand and grabbed Cedric, then the other and caught Evie. Balancing them against the bed, he tickled them mercilessly. Laughter quickly filled the room, cutting away the early morning silence, as the two cries for clemency mingled together. Amos held them there only a few seconds more before releasing them to a fit of subdued giggles.

"Why are you two up so early?" Amos smiled down at his children as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, frowning slightly at the early morning chill.

"It snowed!" Evie repeated the explanation she'd given Cedric with a bit more excitement.

"Can we go out, Dad? Can you make a snow wizard?" Cedric asked sitting up and pulling Evie up once he was settled. They both looked up at him with hopeful eyes as they waited for his answer.

"The sun's hardly up," Amos pretended to protest.

"But…" Cedric started.

"It snowed!" Evie finished with a pout.

"Alright," Amos conceded and incited another round of excited cheers. "But!" He called to gain control again. "But…only if you eat breakfast first."

Cedric and Evie both nodded their agreement to his terms.

* * *

Christmas morning saw Evie up early again, only this time she was being woken up by her brother. She opened her bleary eyes in confusion at the behest of Cedric's gentle shakes.

"Evie, wake up, it's Christmas!" His excitement was infectious and moments before she had fully registered what he'd said she felt herself wide awake and mirroring his anxiousness. "Let's go wake Dad."

Cedric helped Evie from her bed and together they rushed off to their father's room and busted through the door calling loudly for him to wake up. Amos shot up in bed, looking around confused and worried as he tried to make sense of the scene in front of him. Both his children were bouncing on his bed shouting about presents.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Amos shouted over the noise. "Let's calm down for a moment, yeah?"

Cedric and Evie slowed their bouncing so their feet stopped leaving the mattress, and forcefully subdued smiled replaced their previous cheers. They stood like that for a few moments, Amos trying to process the day and year while Cedric and Evie bounced in anticipation and waited for him to say something.

"Dad?" Cedric finally spoke up.

"Hmm?" Amos looked at him.

"It's Christmas," the boy finished happily.

"Cwismas, Cwismas, Cwismas!" Evie shouted, ramping up to do more jumping.

"So it is," Amos smiled, grabbing hold of his daughter's hand and pulling her gently to her knees. "Would you like to go have some breakfast?"

"Pwesents!"

"Food first," Amos laughed.

Christmas breakfast was always the biggest breakfast they had. Amos went all out, cooking up a full English breakfast but substituting pancakes for the beans and leaving out the black pudding and mushrooms altogether, as neither Cedric nor Evie would eat them. He laughed as he cooked, before turning to his children.

"Did you know your mum never liked that I left out the black pudding? She would tell me it wasn't a true full breakfast without it. She didn't like the mushrooms either though. She's actually the reason I don't bother with them anymore." His smile began to falter as he thought of his late wife.

"Mushooms awe bad," Evie stated with absolute certainty pulling Amos back to the present with a smile.

He chuckled lightly as Cedric nodded his wholehearted agreement. "Yes, that's what I hear. But I quite enjoy them."

"Ew!" The two children made matching faces of disgust, causing Amos to laugh harder.

"Well, I am certainly outnumbered, aren't I?"

Breakfast passed quietly as all three were enjoying their food and Amos was reading The Daily Prophet. After they were all full and happy Amos set the dishes to cleaning themselves and helped Evie out of her chair so they could go into the living room and open presents.

The Diggory Cottage living room was not a grandiose one. The fireplace sat directly in the middle of one wall, with stockings of varying colors hanging from its mantle. The chess set had been displaced from its usual corner to house the moderately sized tree, whose star barely scraped the ceiling. It was decorated haphazardly, thanks to Evie and Cedric, with silver tinsel and yellow, blue and red ornaments of all different shapes and sizes. Under the tree sat a decent sized pile of presents all mixed together so Evie and Cedric would have to sort through them.

"Alright, now remember to read the names before you go ripping into them," Amos led Evie to one side of the tree and Cedric sat on the other. "Don't start yet, let me get my camera." Amos rushed into his study just off the living room and came back with his camera. "Big smiles!" Evie and Cedric looked up; smiling wide and Amos snapped a photo.

After that Cedric began grabbing at presents and reading the names before passing them out. Even Amos found he had gifts under the tree, though they were mostly homemade things from Evie and Cedric. A few were from friends and distant relatives and one from Mary had found its way into the bunch as well. She's gotten him a watch, on which the faces of his children smiled up at him and watched the hands move.

Cedric got a new training broom, as his old one was far too small for his ever growing body. He also received a fruit cake from Aunt Perry, a new toy wand and his first set of quills from Mary. The quills were child sized and came with a no spill charmed bottle of ink to prevent messes while he learned. He also got a few smaller gifts in his stocking, little action figures of his favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons.

Evie got lots of clothes, from random relatives, a few Muggle fairytale books, a stuffed owl from Mary, a matching fruitcake from Aunt Perry and a few Quidditch figures from the Chudley Cannons, as Cedric had been trying to teach his sister that his favorite team was the best. Then she found a small box tied closed with a ribbon. She held it out to her father so he could untie it and to her surprise he called her over.

"This is a very special gift for you, Evie," Amos explained, slowly untying the bow. "Your mum left this for you."

Evie looked at her father in awe. It was rare for him to talk about his late wife and hearing that she had left something especially for her made Evie feel warm and timid all at once. Amos pulled the top off the box and revealed the oval-shaped silver necklace etched with intricate filigree. She gasped at the pretty locket that once belonged to her mother.

"Now, I don't want you to lose this so you must never, ever take it off, alright?" Amos instructed looking into the young girl's eyes.

She nodded back, her eyes wide as she felt the weight of his words. With a smile Amos instructed her to turn and then he placed the locket, clasping it into place. It hung low on her small body, but he knew as she grew it wouldn't look so big.

Looking down at the locket, Evie touched it gently. It was cold, but as she stroked it lovingly the metal began to take heat from her fingertips. She looked up at her father and smiled wide, her freckles already seeming less prominent.

* * *

"Dad?" Cedric asked looking up from the action figures he and Evie had been playing with. He had been explaining what players on the Quidditch team did when he finally noticed something was different.

"What's up, mate?" Amos looked up from the papers he'd brought home from work for the holidays.

"Evie looks different."

"How so?" Amos set his papers aside to give Cedric his full attention.

"Her freckles are gone and her eyes are darker."

"That happens a lot to kids as they get older. Lots of babies are born with different color eyes and then they change as they grow. Same thing happens with freckles."

"But the Weasleys still got freckles."

Amos chuckled lightly at that. "Yes, they are a very freckled bunch. Not everyone loses their freckles, just most people."

"What about her hair? It's losing red."

For the first time Amos cursed his sons inquisitive nature. The boy always wanted to understand people and things. Sighing, Amos smiled down at his son. "Did you know you were blonde when you were born?"

"I was?" Cedric asked in absolute shock.

"You were, and by the time you were three your hair was brown."

"Just like what's happening to Evie?" Cedric questioned excitedly, as though finally coming to an understanding.

"Just like Evie," Amos smiled half in amusement and half in relief. "You better watch your sister or she's going to bend the Seeker."

Cedric turned quickly and sure enough Evie was trying to force the Seeker into one of the chairs from her doll house.

"No, Evie." Cedric rushed over to grab the poor figure from her.

* * *

When Mary Ferguson showed up for work after the long holiday she was in good spirits. She'd spent a wonderful Christmas with her family and then an exciting New Years with some close friends in London. She stepped out of the fire with a smile on her face but when she saw the two children rushing to greet her she was shocked.

There was Cedric looking just the same as he always did, except for the added excitement in his expression. Beside him, however, was an excited little girl with brown eyes and chestnut hair. Upon closer examination Mary could tell this was Evie, but the changes to her appearance were impossible and left Mary instantly wondering what had happened in the time that she'd been away.

"Slow down, you two. I've barely gotten me cloak off," she smiled, hiding her shock the best she could. As she hung up her cloak Amos walked in and she grabbed his cloak to hand it to him.

"Did you have a good holiday, Mary?" He smiled and asked as he accepted the cloak in her hands.

"I did, thanks. I expect you lot had a happy Christmas as well?"

"We did, they loved your gifts. I hadn't expected anything, but thank you. The watch is brilliant," Amos smiled and held up his wrist to show it off.

"I'm so glad yah like it," Mary smiled proudly. "Mr. Diggory?"

"Hmm?" He looked up amicably from buttoning his cloak.

"Wha's happened tah Evie?"

"What do you mean?" Amos stopped smiling and stared at Mary.

"Well, she hardly looks like the girl I saw jus' two weeks ago. Surely you've noticed?"

"Oh, right!" Amos chuckled nervously. "Quite right, Mary. Well, you know how kid's can change as they grow older. I hardly expected the freckles to stay."

"Freckles are one thing, Mr. Diggory. The girl's hair and eyes have changed as well. I think the shape of her face is even different," Mary whispered.

"Those are just _changes_ , Mary. They are completely natural," Amos started to get cross at the inquiries as a knot a fear began twisting in his stomach.

Mary Ferguson puffed out her chest in annoyance. "Mr. Diggory, I might be young but I've watched over lots of children and I know tha's not how changes work. The girl can' have auburn hair so red it's nearly copper one day and nearly completely brown hair the next. Please don' treat me like I don' know wha' I'm talkin' about. What happened to Evie?"

"Ms Ferguson, you would do well to remember that I am your employer," Amos snapped, unable to answer her. "Now, I've got to go or I'm going to be late."

Mary watched him disappear into the flames in absolute shock. Amos Diggory had always been the nicest employer she'd ever had, and she had very nearly considered him a friend. He was not the type to snap at anyone, let alone attempt to put her in her place, as it were.

Rattled, but still having a job to do, Mary turned to the children with a bright smile. She felt bad for forgetting they had been standing there waiting for her to hear about their holidays. "Well now, weren' you goin' tah tell me all about yer Christmas?"

There was a hesitant moment before her reassuring smile sunk in for them and the flood gates of information started pouring forth.

* * *

Amos walked quickly into work and straight to his office, closing the door behind him with barely a wave towards his coworkers. Inside, he finally let the panic settle in. His hands shook as he thought on what he could do to end Mary's questions. Finally the answer churned in his brain, and though he was hesitant to ask for any help after what the necklace had done, he knew how dangerous it could be if he didn't.

Sitting at his desk resolutely, Amos pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. He worded his letter carefully, making sure to express both his gratitude as well as his predicament. When he finished, he read over it three times before becoming sure that it was good enough. Closing and addressing it, he exited his office once again.

Paula, the office secretary, looked up from her desk when his door opened."You alright there, Amos?"

"Just a little trouble with the nanny," Amos sighed as he started towards the Owlery. "How are your boys?"

"Just fine, thanks. Can you believe they'll both be at Hogwarts next year?"

"They grow up too fast, if you ask me," Amos chuckled.

"Don't I know it. You cherish these times, Amos. They'll be over too soon," Paula sighed and looked at the picture on her desk which depicted younger versions of her two sons, hardly a year apart in age.

"I will Paula. I've just got to mail something out, if anything comes in for me while I'm gone, just set it on my desk, will you?"

"You want me to handle that?" She offered pointing to the envelope in his hand.

"No, that's alright. It's a bit personal, you understand?"

"Say no more," the woman smiled and Amos realized that her too bright red lipstick had found its way onto her teeth. He almost said as much, but decided against it. The older woman would be in the bathroom for the next hour if he did.

Amos spent the rest of the day waiting for a reply, which never came. He was quick to pack up and head for the Floo Stations, something that was rare for him. Amos was often one of the last to leave the office, but he was hoping the reply was waiting for him at home. Once he thought about it, it was much safer than sending one to the office where anyone might accidentally see it.

"You've got a letter, Mr. Diggory." Mary replied as soon as he stepped out of the flames. Her voice was different- cool and distant- and though Amos did feel guilty for what he'd said to her, he knew it was necessary.

"Thank you, Mary." He replied, hardly looking at her as he took the letter baring the Hogwarts crest and opened it, reading through the frustratingly short reply.

 _Dear Amos,_

 _The situation will be handled by tomorrow before you have left for work. Do not worry yourself, and if there are any more issues do not hesitate to write._

It was not signed but he knew it had reached the right hands. Sighing, he knew he was left with no choice but to trust that the situation was indeed handled. He supposed it shouldn't be hard, but if things did not work out he could lose his daughter, and that was what truly worried him.

The next morning there was a knock on the door as Amos sat wiping the food from Evie's face. Glancing up in surprise he waited, thinking perhaps he had imagined it- after all Mary would always floo in. When the knock sounded again, he stood and instructed his children to stay seated and finish eating their breakfast.

At the door was a woman with graying hair pulled into a tight bun. She had dull blue eyes; the kind that seemed to have once been vibrant and full of life, but time had taken its toll on them. She was older than Amos by possible ten years and had the wrinkles to show for it. She carried a bag of bright paisley print and she smiled warmly, despite what the rest of her appearance might lead one to expect.

"Um…hello?" Amos greeted in confusion.

"Good day, Mr. Diggory. I am Ilsa Darby." Amos continued to stare at her in confusion and Ilsa just smiled kindly at his ignorance before explaining, "I'm your new nanny."


	2. Life and Lessons

"Cedric, teach me," Evie held up her favorite book to her brother.

The seven year old turned and sighed. He had been in the middle of reading about the history of his favorite Quidditch team when she came up.

"Evie, I'm already doing something," he complained, holding up the book.

"But I want to read too," Evie frowned at her brother.

"Fine, but I wanna read this so if you wanna learn you gotta do it with my book."

Evie paused to consider her options. "Okay," she nodded and climbed into the chair next to him. She snuggled into the seat until she was comfortable and then looked expectantly at her brother.

Cedric sighed again, but made room for his sister, all the same. He took the book Evie had brought to him and placed it on the table that sat beside the plushy mint colored chair. "Alright, this is the History of the Chudley Cannons."

"That's your team!" Evie smiled.

"They're the best team," Cedric corrected.

"But Dad says they're losing," Evie scrunched her eyebrows.

"Yeah, but that's just because they need work. They are the best, or at least they will be once I join them."

"You're going to be a famous Quidditch player?"

"Someday," Cedric smiled wistfully.

* * *

"Alright, Evie," Mrs. Darby set a piece of parchment down in front of the girl. "You already know your alphabet, and you know some numbers, isn't that right?"

"I watcheded Cedric learn," Evie explained proudly.

"You _watched_ ," Mrs. Darby corrected.

Evie pursed her lips at the older woman. She missed Ms. Ferguson in moments like that. Mrs. Darby was nice enough, even though she looked like she should be mean, but she was also tougher on Evie than Ms. Ferguson had been. Cedric had told Evie they couldn't be selfish because Ms. Ferguson had to take care of her family too, but Evie couldn't help that she wanted her old nanny back.

"I _watched_ Cedric," Evie corrected, trying to remember the things her brother told her.

"Very good. Now, this is a no spill quill, just like your brother uses. We are going to start by learning how to hold it," Mrs. Darby handed the quill gingerly the four-year-old.

Evie grabbed hold of the quill and was surprised when it immediately left her hand again. She turned in shock and annoyance to stare at Mrs. Darby.

"That's all wrong." The woman sighed as though already exasperated with the young girl. "Close your last three fingers and let the quill rest on them. Then pinch it with your thumb and pointer finger and use them to move the quill." Ilsa demonstrated as she taught, writing letters on the top of the parchment in front of Evie. "See? Now you try."

Evie took the quill and positioned it purposefully in her hand just as she'd watched Mrs. Darby do. She set the quill to the paper and slowly and shakily marked it with a large A. Pausing to admire her handiwork she looked up to catch her brother's attention.

"Cedric, look!" She tilted the parchment so he could see from where he was sitting across the table working on grammar.

He smiled proudly at her accomplishment, "Good job, Evie."

"Yes, very nicely done. Now try to finish out the alphabet and make your letters smaller so they don't take up more than one piece of parchment."

Nodding, Evie hunched over her parchment and furrowed her brow, giving every letter her full concentration. After she finished the capital letters she practiced lower case letters, and after that she practiced writing words.

* * *

Cedric's ninth birthday he received a new broom, as he had every few years when he outgrew his last one. It was a "transition model", which were the brooms parents bought their kids before adult brooms like the Nimbus 1500 or a Cleansweep. It wasn't quite a kid's broom either, going higher than children's models but never reaching the height of an adult model.

Two days after he got it was a work day of all the Muggle families in Ottery St. Catchpole. After finishing up their school work for the day, Cedric and Evie begged Mrs. Darby to let them take it out to the field behind the house and fly.

At first, Mrs. Darby was adamant about them not doing so. She stood, hanging the laundry and fussing at the children, "I can't see you from here. What if something happens?"

"The Weasleys fly in the field all the time."

"You aren't the Weasleys, are you?"

"No…" Cedric frowned and looked down for a minute. "We'll be careful, really we will."

Evie turned to see her brother looking to her for support so she nodded earnestly to Mrs. Darby.

"Well…" Ilsa stopped hanging laundry and placed one hand on her hip as she considered her options. "Oh, alright. But be back before sunset and don't fly too high."

"We won't," Cedric answered.

"We will," Evie smiled excitedly at the same time.

"Fine, off you go," Mrs. Darby waved the children on with an amused roll of the eyes.

Near the middle of the field between their house and the Weasleys, it was easier to see the Weasleys backdoor than it was to see their own. A bit farther off the two could see the Weasley boys on their own brooms flying around, most likely playing Quidditch. They had asked Cedric to play once or twice and though Evie knew she'd been introduced, she could never tell them apart with all that red hair and those freckles.

Cedric hopped on the broom first, then turned to his sister. "Okay, I'm going to ride around for a little bit to test it out. Once I'm comfortable I'll come back and give you a ride, okay?"

"Okay." Evie smiled, perfectly content to watch her brother fly around for a bit. After about 5 minutes he came back down.

"Alright, Evie. Are you ready to go for a ride?"

Evie nodded excitedly before jumping up and settling herself behind Cedric on the broom.

"Are you going to be okay back there?"

"Yeah, I'll hold on real tight." Evie tightened her grip on her brother for just a moment.

"Alright, don't let go," and with that last warning Cedric kicked off the ground and the siblings began soaring towards the treetops.

Evie's heart was pounding in her chest as she watched the ground drift farther away from her feet. The late summer wind wiped through her hair and she began to giggle. None of Cedric's other brooms had ever taken her up so high before. It was also pretty exhilarating to be on the back instead of in front as her father had always insisted when she was younger.

The higher they got the more excited Evie felt. Her laughter continued to build, but soon it wasn't enough to express the amount of joy she felt. Letting go of all her inhibitions she released her hold on Cedric.

"Evie, grab on!"

"But I'm flying!" Evie stretched her arms out wide, just as Cedric tried to level out the broom. The sudden change jostled her and she slipped. In an instant she when from flying to falling and a horrified scream ripped through her throat.

"Evie!" Cedric's voice matched her on in terror as he quickly changed the direction of the broom and tried to fly after her.

As she fell, Evie's body turned so she was facing the ground that was quickly coming up to meet her. Not knowing what else to do, she stuck out her arms to brace herself against the impact. She landed seconds later with a hard thud and two sickening cracks.

"Evie!" Cedric screamed again as he landed and rushed over to her.

Tears streamed down the small girl's face and she tried to sit up but found the pain in her wrists too much.

Cedric turned his sister over and stared down at her in absolute horror. "I'm so sorry, Evie. I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he cried.

"Is everything alright?" a new voice sounded from behind Cedric. He and Evie turned to see one of the Weasley boys rushing up to them, looking worried.

"My sister...I took her for a ride and she fell off," Cedric cried.

"Let me see," he coaxed Cedric aside to examine Evie.

The boy wasn't as freckled as he siblings, he was really tall and lean and his hair was sort of on the long side. He could almost tuck it behind his ears. Evie thought she might actually be able to tell him apart from his brothers, especially if he could help her.

"What's your name?"

"Evie," she sniffed out, tears still streaming down her face.

"Well, Evie, I'm Bill. Can you tell me what hurts?"

"Everything!" She hiccupped. "But mostly my arms."

"Did you land on them?" Evie nodded. "Alright, let's get you to your nanny."

"She's going to be mad at us," Evie whimpered.

"I'm sure she won't be. She might be worried though, and you really need help," Bill paused giving Evie a look she had seen on Cedric's face before. Sighing, she nodded. "Okay, good." He then scooped her up and turned to Cedric. "Can you lead the way?"

Cedric nodded, still sniffling. He turned towards their house and started back.

"You left your broom," Bill stopped him.

"I don't want it anymore," Cedric mumbled and kept walking. Bill frowned after the boy and turned to look at where the broom lay forgotten once more before starting after him.

Evie frowned too, partially because she was in pain and partially because if Cedric didn't ride anymore she knew it would be her fault. She laid, cradled in Bill's arms, worrying about how angry Mrs. Darby would be, whether Cedric would ride his broom again, and just how bad her arms were when they finally reached the Diggory Cottage's backyard.

Mrs. Darby had gone inside with the laundry by that point and Cedric was left to tentatively let them into the kitchen. When their nanny turned and took in the scene in front of her, a strange red haired boy holding Evie as she and Cedric both sniffled and his broom nowhere in sight, the poor woman nearly had a heart attack.

"Oh dear Merlin, what's happened?" She dropped the basket of freshly laundered sheets she'd been carrying and rushed over to the three children. She first frantically began checking over Cedric, but when he mumbled that he wasn't hurt she quickly switched to Evie, who was still being held by Bill.

"My arms hurt," Evie spoke as fresh waves of tears spilled from her eyes.

"I think they're broken. They were flying pretty high when she fell," Bill added.

Mrs. Darby seemed to finally notice Bill was not a child she usually looked after and eyed him thoroughly. "Who are you?"

"William Weasley. Bill for short. My family lives just on the other side of the field. My brothers and I were playing Quidditch when we heard all the commotion." Bill seemed to have plenty of experience speaking with adults, he had the type of manners Evie often forgot and had to be nudged into remembering by Cedric.

" _She fell off_?" Mrs. Darby turned two shades lighter. "How high up were you? Where did you land? Oh Merlin, I shouldn't have let you two go off." She pulled out her wand and began fussing as she scanned Evie. "Set her down here," she ordered Bill without the slightest hint of hesitation. She then rummaged through her bag and pulled out a white potion bottle shaped like a tear drop and containing a thick blue liquid.

As she read the dosages, Ilsa mumbled to herself. "Right, well you'll have to take double since you've broken both wrists." Evie's eyes widened. She was a terrible potion taker, always whining about the taste. "Thank you for all your help, Bill?" When Bill nodded Mrs. Darby smiled and nodded, "yes, Bill. Thank you for bringing them home and helping when you heard the commotion. You'd better get on home now; Evie is in for an unpleasant afternoon."

"It was no problem. Bye Cedric. Bye Evie, I hope you feel better." With those last words and a wave, Bill Weasley was gone.

A few hours later Amos came home and was informed of the day's events. He was angry at first, surprisingly to both Evie and Cedric, at Mrs. Darby for letting them out of her sight while they were flying. Then he was worried, as the process of mending bones was not pleasant. It was better than regrowing bones, to be sure, but still not a fun experience.

Finally, Amos was just happy to find that besides the broken bones, no other injuries had been sustained. He seemed content to just sit by Evie's bed and comfort her while her bones healed, until he received a letter once again bearing the Hogwarts crest and his face turned ashen.

"I…um…I-I'll be right back darling. Cedric you stay with your sister, alright mate?" With a tight lipped smile he quickly exited Evie's bedroom and opened the letter.

 _Amos,_

 _I have heard about the incident that took place today. If Mrs. Darby is unable to sufficiently look after the girl I will find you another nanny, one who better understands just how important she will one day be._

Amos was instantly infuriated by the letter. He rushed down to his study and penned a shaky letter in response.

 _While I understand that to you she is merely a pawn, she is my daughter and I could have lost her today! You'll be sending no more nannies and I want no more of your interfering in my daughter's life.  
_

The response he received was much swifter than the last time they'd shared correspondence.

 _You knew when you agreed to raise the girl why she was important and what she might one day have to do. You will have to find a way to accept that someday, perhaps sooner would be better than later. I will not interfere anymore, however as it would cause many questions if Mrs. Darby were to suddenly leave as well. But take care, because if I fear her life may be in danger with you, I will find somewhere else to place her._

The letter both angered and terrified Amos. He knew very well that she could be taken from him should the need for her arise, though he seriously doubted it ever would, but to lose her because he was considered "unfit" would be more than he could bare. However, he was a man who knew when to pick his battles and this was one he would not win.

With a sigh, he tossed the letters into the fire and made his way back up the stairs to Evie's bedroom. Before he entered, however, he could hear Evie and Cedric talking and could not help himself but to eavesdrop.

"I don't want to fly anymore," the muffle voice of his son came first.

"But you have to!" The more confident voice of his daughter followed.

"You got really, really hurt."

"But you didn't do it. You said to hold on and I didn't. I hurt myself."

"I'm your big brother. I'm supposed to keep you safe. That's what Dad said."

"But if you don't fly anymore you won't be a famous Quidditch player! If you don't do that, you'll never help the Chudley Cannons! That's your dream, you can't give up." Evie answered resolutely.

"But…"

"No! You gotta promise me, you gotta be a famous Quidditch player or I'll be sad forever 'cause you gave up your dream 'cause of me."

After a moment of silence, Amos could practically hear the smile on Cedric's face as he answered. "Okay, I promise."

"Okay, now you gotta promise to never break your promises."

"Never!"

The next morning when Cedric went to go retrieve his broom, he found it leaning against the back door with a note. _Accidents happen, but you've got to keep flying -Bill_

* * *

The winter holidays after Evie turned seven she went to her very first Ministry Christmas Gala. Excited by the idea of meeting more children her age, Evie prepared herself carefully, even turning to her father and Cedric for help with her unruly hair.

"Can you fix it?" She pleaded with Amos.

"Fix it? What's wrong with your hair?"

"It looks all crazy! I want to be pretty tonight."

"But you're pretty every night," Amos smiled at his daughter, but when she frowned in disbelief he sighed. "I can try…this would definitely have been your mother's place," he mumbled the last bit but Evie still heard.

She had known that other little girls would turn to their mothers in those moments, and she had once again felt the stark pang of loss for the woman she'd never met. But she was grateful for all that her father and Cedric tried to do to fill that void.

Evie watched silently as Amos fiddled with her hair for a little while. She began to worry, however, when she heard him mutter a choice curse word or two. Finally he summoned a book and began flipping through the pages. Finding what he was looking for with a small grunt of triumph, Evie watched in awe as her father waved his wand of her head and her hair did itself.

"There we are. Take a look," Amos could not hide the pride in his voice.

Evie stepped up to the mirror and smiled at the slightly messy, but pretty bun that sat in the middle of her head. It was not quite what she would have asked for, had she a mother to ask, but she was mostly just happy her dad had not accidentally cursed all her hair away.

"Thanks, Dad!" She hugged him.

Thirty minutes later the Diggorys were through the Floo and stepping out into a fully decorated Ministry. Evie had been to the Ministry once or twice. The day after she'd broken her arms Amos had insisted she and Cedric go to work with him so he could keep an eye on them. She'd only realized later it had been some sort of punishment, as it was by far the most boring day she could recall to memory. But this was something completely different.

Along the walls were arrows that looked like ice, directing everyone coming out of the fireplaces, which had stockings and tinsel handing from them, towards the ballroom. The closer they got to the ballroom the more decorations Evie saw. Trees and mistletoe and ice sculptures lined the walls and hung from the ceiling. Evie turned to Cedric in awe, only to find his face very much matched hers.

When they reached the door to the ballroom the soft sound of a string quartet could just barely be heard through them, but when they were opened Evie realized she had not been hearing a quartet, but an entire orchestra. The floor was frosted, the dance floor looked like ice and there was snow falling from the ceiling and disappearing before it hit the ground or guests. Evie had never seen such grandiose uses of magic. She felt as if she had just stepped into a fairy tale. The more she looked around, the more she found to stare in wonder at. Ice sculptures moved, the orchestra was just instruments playing themselves, tinsel lined the walls changing colors, and icicles hung from tables and mantels. Even the chandeliers were decorated to look like many giant snowflakes glowing.

"Evie, let's go!" Cedric pulled her from her wonderstruck state and she noticed Amos had already gone off to mingle with the adults and Cedric was trying to pull her towards the small children's area, which was the only place the snow actually reached the ground. There it was forming small mountains and seemed to be refusing to melt, even though the temperature in the ballroom was quite cozy.

Evie allowed herself to be pulled to where a few other children were mulling around, trying to find something to do and not be awkward. Three of them seemed to actually know each other as they were standing around talking and sometimes giving weird looks to the others. Cedric found someone to walk up to first, striking up a conversation about Quidditch and finding a fast friend in a black haired and slightly chubby boy his age. Evie stood back for a moment, until she finally worked up the nerve to walk over to the whispering trio.

"Hello," she started with a smile. The three turned to her with questioning glares that gave her pause, but Evie squared her shoulders and cleared her throat deciding that she might as well continue since she'd already started. "I'm Evelyn, Evelyn Diggory, but you can call Evie."

The trio looked at each other, then a pale boy with platinum blond hair and grey eyes stepped up and held out his hand. "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Evie shook his hand, silently relieved that she had not been ignored. "This is Pansy Parkinson," he introduced the girl who had skin about the same color as Evie's, brown eyes and short black hair, cut into a blunt bob. Evie tried not to notice that her face was sort of squished in. "And this is Blaise Zabini." The last boy was darker than the rest of the group, darker in fact than anyone Evie had met before. He sort of looked like he was made of chocolate, with really short black hair and dark eyes. He was the complete opposite of Draco.

"It's nice to meet you." Evie smiled at each of them in turn. "Do all your parents work at the Ministry as well?"

Pansy started laughing immediately. "My parents don't work at all. We have enough money to never need to."

"Oh," Evie frowned slightly. "Well, then how did you get invited?"

"Are you kidding?" When Evie shook her head, Pansy just scoffed. "The Parkinsons are an old pureblood family. The Minister wouldn't dare not invite my daddy."

"Pureblood?" Evie frowned again. She wasn't entirely sure why, but this felt like a bad group.

"Don't your parents teach you anything?" Draco finally spoke up. "We Malfoys are pureblood too."

"But what does that mean?"

"It means we don't have any gross muggle blood. Never have and never will."

"That's stupid," Evie became instantly annoyed with the conversation. Mrs. Darby had told them a little bit about witches and wizards who didn't like muggles or other witches and wizards that had been born to muggles and stuff, but she had never thought kids like her would think things like that. "How do you know muggles are gross? Have you ever met any?"

"No! But they don't have magic like us. That makes us better."

"No it doesn't. That's stupid and so are you."

"You're stupid! Do you have muggle blood? Because that's how stupid you are!"

"I bet she's poor too," Pansy added.

"We aren't poor, and even if we were it wouldn't matter because at least we'd be smart and money can't buy smart. And I don't know if we have Muggle blood but I don't care because I'm still smarter than you and maybe if I have muggle blood that's why!"

"What's going on?" Cedric's voice suddenly cut through the argument.

"They were saying mean things about muggles and they called us poor," Evie fussed, turning to her brother for backup.

Cedric looked at the three she had been arguing with before he narrowed his eyes and grabbed her hand. "C'mon Evie, hang out over here with me instead."

"But…" but before she could really argue, Cedric had already pulled her away, so she settled for a fierce backwards glare at her new enemies. Once she had turned to follow willingly, however, she turned her anger on her brother. "Why did you do that? We coulda won."

"You don't wanna fight them. Their parents could make things really bad for Dad." Cedric frowned, looking back at the trio, who had already turned back to whispering to each other. "Besides, people like that don't change."

"We could still try."

"There's no point. They are always gonna think like that and you can't fix everyone." Evie frowned, but didn't argue anymore. Her gut was telling her she could keep fighting and that she probably should. She didn't like the sound of giving up on someone, but Cedric was so much smarter than her so she figured it might be better to just listen to him.

"Okay."


	3. The Year Long War

"Cedric, you've got a letter!" Amos called, voice flowing with pride.

Upstairs two heads popped out of two separate rooms. In a few weeks the Diggorys would be celebrating Cedric's eleventh birthday and the anticipation of the imminent Hogwarts letter had filled the house with an electric air of excitement. There had never been any doubt that the Diggory children would be receiving their Hogwarts letters, both having displayed magical ability as early as three.

The thunderous noise of two pairs of excited feet clambering down the stairs into the kitchen filled the house in about ten seconds before it quickly disappeared. Standing in front of Amos faster than he could blink, was his son, wide eyed and excited, as well as his daughter, practically bouncing with anticipation.

Amos handed the letter to his son and watched with an amused smile as the boy opened it with shaking hands. As he read, a huge smile spread across Cedric's face. After finishing the letter Cedric looked at his father in sheer delight.

"I've got in," he whispered. "Dad, I'm going to Hogwarts!"

"Well, of course you are," Amos laughed.

"Read it out loud Cedric!" Evie begged.

"Let me see that supply list," Amos requested.

Cedric handed the second piece of paper to his father and began reading. "Dear Mr. Diggory, we are please to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on the first of September and I have to reply no later than July thirty-first."

"Reply to what?"

"I've got to tell them I'm going."

"Why wouldn't you go?" Evie asked completely flabbergasted by the idea of refusing an invitation to Hogwarts.

"If I was a Squib I wouldn't go."

"There are also other wizarding schools, you know that. Parents who moved here from other countries might prefer their children go to their alma mater instead."

"What's an alam mater?"

" _Alma_ mater. It's what you call the school you went to once you've graduated."

"Dad, when can we go shopping for my school things?"

"Tomorrow. I've got work today and Diagon Alley is going to be dreadfully crowded by the time I get off."

"Okay," Cedric sighed, a bit deflated.

"We'll go early, I promise."

"Okay," He perked up again.

"Alright, that's enough of that excitement. Sit down and eat your breakfast." That's what Amos said, but all throughout breakfast the only talk that passed between them was about Cedric's acceptance letter and Hogwarts.

* * *

The next day in Diagon Alley, Evie was just as excited as her brother. The streets were full of parents ushering their children from shop to shop, preparing for the coming school year. Owls screeched in cages outside the Owl Emporium and inside the Magical Menagerie. The smell of potions, animals and food drifted through the air and mingled with the different colognes and perfumes the many witches and wizards around them wore. Bright colors from all sorts of shops caught Evie's eye and everywhere she turned she found another one she was desperate to go in.

"Dad," she gasped out excitedly. "Can we go into Flourish and Blotts? Oh!" She turned her head. "Can we get ice cream after we finish shopping?"

"Calm down, Evie," Amos laughed. "Let's get Cedric's wand first and we'll go from there."

"What sort of wand do you think you'll have?" She turned her questions to Cedric.

"I dunno," her brother answered with a nervous quiver.

Evie had already opened her mouth to ask another question, but at the sound of his voice she closed it again, before walking around their father and taking Cedric's hand. When he looked down at her, she just smiled brightly and he graced her with a smile of his own.

"Here we are," Amos drew the children from their silent reassurances.

Mr. Ollivander's wand shop was dusty and dimly lit. Its shelves were filled like those of Flourish and Blotts but instead of books, it was floor to ceiling wands. Evie blinked and squinted to adjust her eyes to the sudden lack of light. Once the door was closed, even the noise outside was softer.

"Welcome! Give me a moment and I'll be right with you," the old wizard behind the counter was placing a wand in a box and handing if off to another child, who smiled excitedly and barely paid them any mind as she rushed out with her parents in tow. "Well then, come forward young man."

Evie watched Cedric step up to Mr. Ollivander with less confidence than he usually tackled many adults. The old man before her brother eyed him thoughtfully and Evie did the same to the old man. He was ancient, even by wizarding standards she thought. His hair was white all over and his eyes were the sort of pale eyes get when they have been seeing things for many, many years. He had wrinkles all over but his hands were steady as he beckoned Cedric to him. The air around him seemed to demand the type of respect one gives the kind and wise.

"What is your name?"

"Cedric Diggory, sir."

"Hmm…I have a hunch that unicorn will be your core," Mr. Ollivander began as he started back towards the shelves. "The wood, however, is what we will be testing a few of. Ah," he pulled a box from a dusty shelf and brushed it off.

Bringing it to the counter he opened the box to reveal a pale wand with a thick handle, that, had it not been polished and shaped, would be indistinguishable from a normal stick. He presented it to Cedric with a smile. "Beech, unicorn core, twelve inches, slightly springy."

Cedric took the wand and, after an encouraging nod from the shop owner, gave it a tiny flick. The wand's reaction was immediate and hostile, bursting a bulb in the nearby lamp and plunging to store into more darkness. Evie found herself wondering if that was why there was so little light to begin with.

"Ah, not that one then," Mr. Ollivander took the wand back, not seeming fazed by the small explosion at all. "Hmmm…no Beech. Perhaps…" he mumbled along to himself, replacing the previous wand and pulling another. "I am very confident that this will be the one." He opened this box, and the wand inside was a richer brown than the previous. The color gradually turned black at the end and instead of a handle there was an intricate design carved into the wood. "Ash, twelve and a quarter inches, unicorn hair core…pleasantly springy."

Cedric took this wand more hesitantly than he did the first, but he never bothered to flick it. Evie could not tell exactly what happened, but a slight wind whipped at his hair and when she asked him later he said warmth encircled him the moment his hand touched the wand. "This is it," he whispered in awe.

"Yes, the wand always knows," Mr. Ollivander smiled, before turning and resting his eyes upon Evie. "I look forward to helping you in just a few years time."

Evie nodded excitedly, "Three. I'll be back in three years, Mr. Ollivander."

The old man laughed, and Evie could see the twinkle that probably used to always reside in his old eyes. "Good, because I gave your mother her wand when she was eleven and your father his that same year, and now Cedric has a wand very close to Alison's and I'm curious to see what yours might be."

When Cedric heard that news, his face lit up brighter than it had before. "Do I have to have the box?"

"It is tradition," Ollivander explained. When Cedric nodded, Ollivander took the wand gentle and spoke as he boxed it with great care. "The ash wand is very loyal, especially when paired with unicorn hair core. This wand will do great things for you, and only you."

As they left Ollivander's, Evie felt as though a great bit of wisdom had been imparted on them. But then, that could have also been the atmosphere, as she found dim lights and old people often made her feel as though everything being said was incredibly wise.

* * *

"Alright, Ced, you first." Amos was standing just a bit away from the entrance to Platform 9 ¾. Next to him, Cedric pushed a cart loaded with school books and his trunk of clothes and hygiene essentials, at the top of which sat his colorless Hogwarts uniform. Evie remembered distinctly how longingly Cedric had looked at the Hufflepuff robes when they'd gone shopping.

As casually as he could manage, Cedric disappeared through the wall and onto the platform. In the moments before she and her father followed, Evie realized that for the next few years she would have to watch Cedric do this. This would be the first time she would be without her brother everyday and suddenly, Evie had no idea what she would do with herself. There would be no more broom rides, no more scolding when she did something stupid, no more stories and teasing and she was suddenly very, very lonely. Then they crossed the barrier onto the platform and she found herself staring at so many families and carts and animals and a giant scarlet train with black and gold trimming and she was in awe.

Cedric had waited just on the other side of the barrier for them and together the three weaved their way towards the train. Older children kept looking them over and smiling, as though they all knew something Evie and Cedric did not. But of course, once Evie thought of it she realized they did. They knew the sort of magic she didn't yet and they knew about Hogwarts, a school shrouded in a sort of awe-inspiring mystery. It wasn't really a mystery, but their dad had told them he couldn't really tell them much about it because it was tradition for them to see for themselves, to experience it as all other students did.

As they continued to weave through the platform, a shock of red caught Evie's eye and she turned to see the Weasleys, a large circle of orange in a mostly brown and black crowd, sending off two of the older boys, Bill having graduated a few years previous. Both wore matching Hogwarts robes with the telling maroon lining of Gryffindor. As far as Evie knew there had never been a Weasley not sorted into Gryffindor.

"Alright, my boy," Amos clasped Cedric on the back lightly. "Are you sure you've got everything?"

"Yes, I checked twice before we left."

"Good." If their father had been about to say anything else, his words were drowned out by the shrill whistle of the train. "Well, you'd best be getting on board. Write us tonight after you've been sorted."

"I will." Cedric turned to Evie after a quick hug from Amos. "Be good for Mrs. Darby."

"Don't leave me," Evie's lip began to tremble. She had never spent more than a few hours away from Cedric and she hadn't the slightest idea what to do with herself if he were gone. All she could imagine is how very lonely the house and her days would be without her big brother.

Cedric hugged her tightly with a sad smile. "I'll be home for break before you know it. And I'll write you at the very least once a week."

"I'm gonna miss you." Evie mumbled into his shirt.

"I'll miss you too, but I'm only an owl away. Plus, without me there, you'll be able to get in all sorts of trouble without anybody to fuss at you." When she gave the slightest hint of a smile, Cedric pulled back. "I'll be back before you know it." Then he kissed her forehead and hopped on the train.

When his head popped out of a compartment next to the boy he spent Ministry Galas with, Evie waved and she didn't stop waving until the train turned the corner and was gone.

* * *

The months passed slowly for the first time in Evie's life. With each day that no more letters arrived she found her anger growing. Cedric had lied to her for the first time and Evie felt immensely betrayed. All she knew of Hogwarts and Cedric since the day she waved goodbye was that he was sorted into Hufflepuff and that his roommates were nice. The letters had not come since then.

At first Evie had tried to write to him, hoping it would coax at least a small reply from her brother. When that did nothing, she tried actively ignoring his existence; though it would have been more satisfying had he'd known she was actively ignoring him. Finally, she took to kindling her anger, which was by far the most productive way she had found to handle his lack of letters. When the snow finally began to fall, Evie had convinced herself she didn't even want Cedric to come home, so much so that the day Amos went to pick him up from the train station she opted to stay home.

"Evie, we're back!" Amos called up the stairs where the girl had secluded herself in her room with a book in a strategic manner. She wanted Cedric to know she was not waiting eagerly to see him. She took her time leaving her room as well, making her way slowly down the stairs with a forced air of calm.

"Hey," Cedric stated lightly and Evie saw red.

"'Hey'?" That's all you've got to say after months and months?" She could hear her voice rising but was powerless to stop it.

"What's your problem?" Cedric frowned.

"You didn't write! You said you would and you never did! You just forgot all about me, didn't you?" She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks and the sting behind her eyes, but Evie refused to turn into a blubbering mess when she wanted to be so very angry.

"I did so write," Cedric became defensive and annoyed. "I told you I got sorted, didn't I?"

"And then nothing! You're a liar! You lied to me!"

"I was busy!"

"Doing what?"

"Having friends!" Cedric snapped out the words and seemed to think better of them the moment they were said, but the damage was done.

"I hate you! I hate you, I hate you! You aren't my brother anymore!" Finally the tears spilled over and Evie turned and ran back up the stairs.

They didn't talk for a while after that. Not all of Cedric's break, though he did try and apologize at first. Unfortunately, Evie had spent months kindling a rage and she became stubborn and resentful, making things worse rather than better when given the chance. After two failed attempts at an apology, which just turned into more arguing, Cedric stopped trying.

They spent the rest of break either avoiding each other or in icy silence around the table for meals. Christmas was a downright painful affair. They'd already bought each other presents so there were still plenty to be opened; however, even though Evie loved the copy of _Hogwarts, A History_ Cedric had bought her to give her some idea of the school, she refused to show any emotion about it and stubbornly left it in the living room instead of taking it up to her room to read.

In a similar fashion, Cedric was very excited about the wand polishing kit Evie had gotten him, but he pretended to feel nothing about it, almost as stubborn as his sister, he only showed his true feelings when he made sure to hastily pack it at the bottom of his trunk so she wouldn't see he was taking it with him.

In the months that had passed and the months that came before summer break, Evie's books had become her only friends. She started reading everything there was in the house to read, and with Cedric gone she could also safely read _Hogwarts, A History_ without admitting defeat. Evie retreated into these books to ignore the aching loneliness she felt. When summer rolled around Evie returned her Christmas present to the living room in order to pretend she had not touched it since she'd opened it.

Her birthday passed, and then Cedric's and still they did not speak. Amos became so furious with them, one day he sat them at the kitchen table and threatened to leave them there until they began speaking to each other again. When hours passed and the two still showed no signs of making up, he relented and Cedric went off to spend the day with his friends and Evie once again retreated into her books. This is how they remained right up until Cedric once again left for his second year at Hogwarts.

* * *

That Christmas break marked an entire year of Evie and Cedric fighting. They had hardly fought before and Evie found herself growing tired of the constant silence, but not quite sure she wanted to be friends again, if for no other reason than she didn't want to lose. She did, however, dare to break the silence.

"I'm tired of waiting for Christmas to know my presents," she said to no one in particular, though Cedric was the only other person in the room.

"Well, it's against the rules to know before you open them Christmas morning."

"Whose rules? I think you're lying again."

"Fine, maybe it isn't a rule, but it's against tradition and you shouldn't do it."

"I don't have to listen to you anymore, you aren't my brother." With that, Evie huffed out of the kitchen and into the lounge. Two minutes later she heard Cedric's feet on the stairs and she decided, out of sheer spite, she would search for her Christmas presents though she'd had no actually desire to ruin the surprise when she'd first brought it up.

Positive they weren't in the living room, she turned to her father's study. It was the one place in the house she and Cedric did not go. Thinking back, Evie didn't remember being told flat out that they were not allowed in there, but since nobody other than their dad ever went in she had assumed that was the case. Searching for presents, however, she used the fact that she'd never been told not to go in, in her mental defense and she slowly pushed open the door.

The office was yellow, the bright flowery sort and Evie felt sure her dad had not picked that color. A desk sat in the middle of the small room and on either side of it, against the wall, were bookshelves. One actually held books, the sort adults read for education and not amusement. The other was filled with pictures and knickknacks. There was a ship in a bottle that actually moved as though on water, also miniature Quidditch players and several awards she didn't bother to read.

Nothing stood out on the shelves so Evie turned her attention to the other things in the room. On the wall by the door was a filing cabinet, but when she tried the drawers she found they were mostly filled with reports about different creatures getting wands or doing bad things to Muggles. Sighing, she turned away from these too.

Finally moving to the desk, she started with the top drawers, since she doubted there would be presents in them, before moving to the larger drawers at the bottom. When she first opened one of the larger drawers she thought it was just filled with more papers and quills and ink bottles, that is, until she realized the drawer was to shallow. After a bit more messing about she found a way to move the top bit of the drawer back, to reveal what was underneath.

It was just more papers. In all of her frustration, she almost didn't notice they were newspaper clippings, but when Evie gave another glare, she realized what she was staring at. Pulling the clippings from the drawer, she climbed into her father's desk chair and read the headline on the first yellowing Daily Prophet page.

 **Dark Mark in Ottery St. Catchpole**

 _Another attack was reported here in England, when, just outside of the sleepy town of Ottery St. Catchpole, Ministry worker Amos Diggory came home from a day in Diagon Alley with his son to find the dreaded Dark Mark hanging over his house. Inside, Mr. Diggory's wife, Alison, was found tortured nearly to death. She was rushed to St. Mungo's, but was later pronounced dead. Alison was believed to be a Muggle sympathizer. She was also in the early stages of pregnancy when she died; it is believed that the baby did not survive.  
_

Evie's blood ran cold. This was her mother. She was that baby. No wonder her father never talked much about what had happened. Evie couldn't even imagine the horror he must have felt coming home to that. Setting aside the first clipping she realized they were all related to her mother's death.

 **Courtroom Shocker!**

 _In a stunning turn of events, after agreeing to name more of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's followers in exchange for his own freedom, Igor Karkaroff pointed to none other than Barty Crouch Jr. That's right, the only son of high-ranking Ministry Official Barty Crouch Sr. has been named as an avid and, by the smile on his face, proud Death Eater. His trial will be set for later this month._

 **The Proud Confession**

 _This reporter can barely quill what she's hearing. Barty Crouch Jr. sits on the stand, his tongue darting from his mouth every so often and a smile on his lips. He has confessed not only to the murder of several Muggles, but also the torture and in some cases murder or several Muggleborn and Muggle sympathizing witches and wizards. One he seemed particularly proud of was a death I reported on months ago, that of Alison Diggory, wife to Ministry worker Amos Diggory._

" _We hit that filthy blood traitor with the Cruciatus Curse over and over again. The whole time she cried 'not my baby, not my baby!' But why not? She'd have raised it to be a traitor just the same."_

 _Another dart of that disgusting tongue._

" _When she wouldn't die, even with all the blood between her legs, I started cutting at her. That's a messier way to do, but she seemed to finally stop moving."_

 _Then, dear Merlin you won't believe it, he started laughing!_

" _That's what she gets! That's what they all get for being traitors and Mudbloods and turning their back on the Dark Lord! He'll come back! And when he does, you'll all be punished!"_

 _Needless to say, he was sentenced to life in Azkaban._

 _This has been Rita Skeeter, your courtroom reporter._

Underneath was a picture. The picture of the man who'd killed her mother. Evie shook as her eyes locked onto the image or the snarling, licking, crazed man being held in place by two pairs of faceless hands. His eyes seemed like black holes, devoid of any emotion. They made her cold and terrified. With a sudden and irrational sort of fear, she threw all the clippings back into the drawer and slammed it shut before running from the room. It was only when she'd grabbed the doorknob to pull it closed behind her that she finally realized even her palms were sweating.

"Evie?" Cedric's voice caused her to jump. That's when she realized she was also shaking. "Are you alright?"

Before any words could come out she was sobbing. A year they had been fighting. One whole year they'd barely said a word to each other, but none of that mattered. More than anything in that moment, Evie wanted her big brother to tell her she was safe and no lizard tongued man would be coming to hurt her.

"I'm sorry," she bawled as Cedric wrapped his arms around her. "I should have listened. I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Cedric soothed. "It's going to be okay."

It took ten minutes of sobbing and shaking before she finally managed to tell him what had happened in a way he could actually understand, but once she had, Cedric did not scold her or yell. He just held her longer and promised, as he always did, that he would protect her.


	4. Hermione Granger

"Evie, you've got a letter!" Amos called up the stairs.

Evie burst forth from her room, quickly followed by Cedric, who was smiling in amusement as he watched her barrel past him and down the stairs. She nearly crashed into her father as she slid into the kitchen searching widely for the letter she had eagerly anticipated all year.

"Where?" She practically gasped out after giving up her search and righting herself. Amos laughed and handed her the envelope. She read the emerald ink on the front as though she were not sure the letter was actually meant for her.

There it was, her name, well E. Diggory, but who else could that be if not her? This was her Hogwarts letter, finally. Evie turned it to stare at the Hogwarts crest pressed into the red wax that sealed the envelope. Slowly, and with more care than she ever did anything, she opened it and pulled out her acceptance letter.

She read it quickly, though she still remembered the exact wording from Cedric's letter. Finally she looked up and into the smiling faces of her father and brother. "I'm going to Hogwarts."

"Well, of course you are!" Amos laughed. "Now, let's see that list. They should still be the same books Cedric had, so you can just use his. But we'll still have to go to Diagon Alley for your clothes, supplies and, of course, your wand."

Evie's eyes suddenly widened. "Can we go today? Oh, Dad, please can we?"

"It's Friday," Amos reminded her. "We'll go tomorrow, bright and early, just like we do every year."

"But, Dad, I've waited three years! Please, can we go today? Just this year, please!" She clasped her hands together and pouted with all her might.

"Evie, I said no. You can wait one more day, just like Cedric had to."

The air rushed from her lungs and her shoulders sagged as Evie realized that no amount of begging would cause her father to concede. "Okay," she mumbled despondently.

"Oh, don't be like that, sweetheart. It's only one more day," Amos frowned, but did not show any other hints of changing his mind. "Come and eat your breakfast."

Evie did as she was told and sat at the kitchen table, but she barely touched her food until she realized she could at least try to get Cedric to tell her anything about the school she had not yet learned from _Hogwarts, A History_. She spent the entire rest of breakfast bombarding him with questions, hoping desperately that he'd slip up and tell her something.

He didn't.

* * *

"Dad, let's go! I want to get my wand first," Evie tugged at her father's hand the second they were out of the fireplace at The Leaky Cauldron. She wasn't even sure why they had not just taken the floo straight to Diagon Alley.

"Evie, you made us leave before breakfast. We're going to sit and eat something before we get your things," Amos tugged the girl in the opposite direction.

"What?" Evie forgot to keep tugging and was dragged to a table. "But…"

"No arguments. I let you drag us here at this unholy hour, but you will eat a good breakfast before you run all around and cause yourself to faint."

Evie opened her mouth to try to protest again, but she found no argument good enough to convince her father to wait to eat. With a defeated sigh she plopped down harder than intended on the seat next to Cedric and was rubbing her sore bum when Tom walked up with menus.

"That time of year again, Amos?" Tom, in all his nearly toothless glory, smiled.

"Yes, and now my little girl's heading off to Hogwarts too," Amos greeted before turning Tom's attention to Evie.

"Are you now? Hoping to be a Hufflepuff like your dad?"

"I'll be happy with any house but Slytherin," Evie mumbled honestly. Tom made her uncomfortable. Not that he wasn't a nice enough man, but he had so few teeth and absolutely no hair on his head. He was just hard to look at because Evie was never sure where was safe to look.

Tom opened his mouth to answer, but the door to the pub made a small dinging sound as the bells above it were jostled and an unsure couple walked in. Beside them stood a bushy haired, large-toothed girl with wide eyes.

"Ah, I've got to go. Think that's the Muggleborn girl Dumbledore sent word about." Tom nodded at Amos and walked over.

"She's Muggleborn?" Evie's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, that must mean she's going to be a first year, like me."

"Did you want to go talk to her?" Cedric asked with a smile.

"What do I say?"

"'Hello, my name is Evie'?" Her brother joked.

"What will they do? I mean, how does she know where to go to get her things?"

"Tom will provide them with a map and answer any questions they've got," Amos explained.

"Can I invite her to come with us?"

"Well I don't see why not. In fact, she might appreciate that a lot. She won't know much about us after all."

Her decision made, Evie stood up and walked over to the small family. Tom was rambling on about something and the trio looked pretty lost.

"Ahem," Evie cleared her throat. Everyone turned to face her. For a second she lost her nerve, but after a quick glance back to where her father and brother were smiling encouragingly at her, she turned back with a smile. "Hello, my name is Evelyn, Evelyn Diggory, but you can call me Evie. That's my family over there, my dad and brother, Cedric." She pointed and the two offered kind waves. "This year is going to be my first at Hogwarts, and I couldn't help but overhear Tom say it would be your first year too." That was a lie but she felt the assumption was a safe one. "I was wondering if you'd like to come shopping for your school things with us."

There was a pause as the girl looked to her parents, both of whom nodded just the same as Amos had, before she turned back to Evie with a smile. Her teeth were really big, but they were also incredibly straight and white.

"I'm Hermione Granger." She held out her hand and Evie took it gratefully. This was going so much better than the last time she'd tried to make friends. "These are my parents."

"It's nice to meet you. Come sit with us, we've got to have breakfast before we go, I hope that's alright."

"That's quite alright. It will give us time to ask your father some questions," Mr. Granger smiled.

"Dad will know lots, he works for the Ministry."

"What's that?" Hermione asked just as they reached their table.

"Dad, this is Hermione Granger and her parents. They would like to come shopping with us."

"Of course, of course. Please, have a seat." Amos gestured to the empty seats at their table.

"You can sit next to me, Hermione," Evie offered. When the other girl took the offer, Evie turned to her excitedly. "Our parents are probably going to talk about all the boring stuff but, you are Muggleborn, aren't you?"

"I'm what?"

"Evie, she doesn't know what that means," Cedric sighed, and then cast a sympathetic smile at Hermione. "Sorry, my sister isn't trying to be rude; she's just never met a mug…person with non-magical parents before. That's what Muggleborn means."

"So, muggle is a non-magical person?" Hermione asked. Evie and Cedric nodded. "And a person with magic who is born to muggles is Muggleborn?"

"Exactly," Evie smiled.

"Then, yes, I'm Muggleborn."

"What's it like?" Evie asked excitedly.

"Being Muggleborn?" Hermione questioned.

"No, growing up muggle. What's it like?"

"Oh, um…normal, I suppose."

Evie frowned at Cedric, "Mrs. Darby told me muggles don't have moving photos or owl post."

"You always get your post by owl?"

"Yeah, how else would we get it?"

"A Postman."

"There's a man who delivers your post?"

"Yes. His name is Barry and he's very nice."

"That's so weird," Evie laughed. "Tell me more!"

"Well, our photos don't move."

"None of them?"

"Well, we have cinema, but that's not the same thing."

"What's a cinema?"

"It's a story that plays out on film."

"So it is sort of like moving pictures."

"Do your moving pictures talk?"

"Only our paintings, but they aren't really the same. They're kind of like ghosts."

"Are ghosts real?"

"Of course they are. But back to this cinema, is it like a book? If you watch again, do they always say the same thing?"

"Mmmhmm. Ghosts are really real?"

"Yep, we'll see some at Hogwarts."

"There are ghosts at Hogwarts?" Hermione's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, each House has its own ghost. And then there are others who just sort of hang around."

"Are they not dangerous?"

"Why would they be dangerous? They're just ghosts."

"Do you two know what you want to eat?" Amos cut through the conversation the two girls had become completely engrossed in.

"Oh, um…" Hermione blushed looked at Evie. "Is the food the same?" She whispered.

"Porridge, tea, pancakes, sausage, eggs?" Evie questioned, hesitantly. When Hermione sighed in relief, Evie smiled. "I'll have eggs, sausage and toast. Oh, and tea please," she confirmed to Tom.

"I'll have the same," Hermione said. "Thank you," she added with a smile towards Evie.

"What are friends for?" Evie shrugged and smiled. It was a bold assumption, but Hermione didn't refute it. Instead the girl just smiled back wider and Evie found herself doing the same.

The group ate in relative silence, before Evie practically rushed her father to the back of the Leaky Cauldron so they could get to Diagon Alley. She wasn't sure if she was more excited to show Hermione around or to finally get her wand.

"Let's go to Flourish and Blotts first. They've got loads of books there."

"That's all Hermione will need to hear," Mrs. Granger chuckled lightly. Evie glanced up at the older woman. She looked quite a bit like her daughter. They had the same straight, white teeth, though Hermione's were slightly bigger than Mrs. Granger's. She had the same color hair too, though hers was less bushy but still unruly in a way.

Evie felt the sudden but familiar dull ache of the unknown. What was it like to have a mother to look at every day and see bits of yourself in? She wondered if Mrs. Granger helped Hermione brush her hair and told her she was pretty. Did she tell Hermione that she used to look just like that when she was younger, so her daughter could look up at her and see what she might look like once she was older? Were her hugs softer than a dad's but just as warm?

"Evie, did you hear me?" Amos called the girl from her thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"We've got to take the Grangers to Gringott's first so they can exchange their muggle money for ours," her father explained.

"Can I see what muggle money looks like?" Evie transferred her excitement quickly to the idea of learning more about the muggle world.

"Of course," Mrs. Granger smiled and handed Hermione some money to teach Evie about. They spent the entire walk to Gringott's discussing the difference between their money.

The actual exchange of muggle money for galleons was a boring affair. Evie had never particularly liked the goblins of Gringott's. They always seemed angry for unknown reasons. The only plus side of their detour was that Evie got to tell Hermione about the goblins and watch her new friend's excitement as she saw a magical creature for the first time.

Outside the bank Amos turned to the children smiling. "We've already passed many of the places we'll need to stop," he started. "So, if you'd like, we can go to Ollivander's first and work our way back to the Leaky Cauldron."

"Really?" Evie practically squealed.

"What's Ollivander's?"

"That's where we get our wands!"

"Would you like to?" Amos directed the question at Hermione, as he already knew Evie's answer.

"Yes, sir," Hermione smiled with barely contained excitement.

The walk there was much closer to a run, and before they knew it Evie and Hermione were standing before Mr. Ollivander with matching bubbles of excitement and nerves in their stomachs. Upon seeing the slight fear on Hermione's face, Evie stepped up to the man, happy to finally be waiting to be picked by her very own wand.

"Ah, Miss Diggory, three years nearly to the day and you've kept your promise," Mr. Ollivander smiled as she looked up at him hopefully.

"You remember me?"

"How could I not? You were so confident you'd be back," Ollivander smiled before tapping a finger against his mouth thoughtfully. "Perhaps a wand of Larch for such confidence," he considered as he walked away, but Evie could hear him continue to mutter to himself. "A family of Unicorn tail hair cores, that's the smart guess," Ollivander nodded to himself, as though agreeing with his own assessments.

When he came back with the box, Evie was eager to see what was inside. He opened the box to reveal a warm brown wand, the handle was thick and angular and the tip was all business, not pretty designs like some of the others she'd seen.

"Larch, unicorn core, eleven inches, slightly springy," Ollivander presented.

Taking a deep breath, Evie picked up the wand and gave it a flick. Unlike Cedric's violent rejection, the wand in Evie's hand gave the saddest fizzle of magic and stopped. Frowning, she looked up at the wand maker, who seemed very amused by the display.

"Well, apparently I got hardly a thing right, there," he chuckled at his error before taking the wand back and bustled away, all the while muttering to himself. "Let's try this one," he called a bit more confidently, as he walked back. "Ash, dragon heartstring core, ten and three-quarter inches, slightly springy."

The wand responded a bit more to the girl's prompting, though it was not the sort of response one could consider good. A slight flair of magic burst from the tip and immediately attacked the lamp closest to them.

"Ah, well, that's a bit of progress, but still not what we're after," Ollivander shrugged it off. With a wave of his own wand the lamp fixed itself and he bustled off to try again.

"Alright, I think I've got this figured out," Ollivander announced, bringing out yet another wand. "Blackthorn, dragon heartstring core, ten and three-quarter inches, slightly springy."

Evie picked up the wand and waved it. It almost felt right, and yet it still felt far off. Even the magic seemed almost right, but didn't do quite as it should. A couple of wands began to move from their shelves, before suddenly and violently jerking forward and colliding together and crashing to the floor.

Ollivander looked Evie over. He just stared into her eyes for a moment, before muttering, "I wonder." He then cleaned up the mess, took the third failed wand from her hands and rushed back in the direction he'd come. Finally he presented Evie with a final wand. "Blackthorn, phoenix feather core, ten and three-quarter inches, slightly springy."

Evie looked down at the wand Ollivander was presenting to her. The entire thing was so dark it was very nearly black. The handle was distinctively thicker than the rest, with a knobbed top and a notch at the end. On the handle, carved in to show the lighter wood underneath, were flowers and berries. The rest of the wand was covered in what looked to be rounded thorns.

Evie just stared at the wand for a moment, so worried it would again fail and she would promptly be kicked out of Mr. Ollivander's shop deemed to be the problem, not his wands. She would lose her new friend Hermione, surely, if that happened. Her father would be so disappointed. She'd never get into Hogwarts without a wand.

"It's alright, Evie," Cedric whispered behind her, pulling her from the spiral of hysteria she was working herself into.

Turning to find not only Cedric, but also her father and Hermione smiling encouragingly at her, Evie nodded. Finally, she turned back to the wand Ollivander was presenting to her and took it from him. That was the moment she learned what it felt like when your wand found you. The feeling of sureness that overcame her was slightly intoxicating. She felt warm and confident.

"Phoenix feather cores are extremely picky. Take care, my dear, there may be great hardships in your future. But this wand is a fighter, not unlike you, I should think," Ollivander smiled kindly.

"Wow," Evie breathed, relieved to know she was not, in fact, doomed to the life of a squib.

"What do you say to Mr. Ollivander?" Amos reminded his bewildered daughter.

"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander, for helping me find my wand."

"It's my job, my dear. But you are most welcome."

Evie was forced to put her wand in the box while her father settled up the price with Ollivander. She held the box in her hands the whole time, staring down at the wand that had chosen her. She barely noticed, Evie would later be slightly embarrassed to admit, when Hermione walked up to Ollivander and they began speaking.

She did recall him asking her lots of questions that didn't seem to make sense. Did she like the moon or the stars best? Does she prefer the ocean to a forest? The questions didn't seem to have anything to do with her personality, and yet, after the extensive questioning period Ollivander walked into the back and came out with a wand.

"Vine wood, dragon heartstring core, ten and three-quarter inches, rigid."

As Hermione reached for the wand, Evie found herself holding her breath. She was waiting to see if it was possible that Malfoy and his friends had been right. Would it be hard to find a wand to work for Hermione because she was Muggleborn? In all honesty, Evie had never interacted with one, and she would be very angry if, after all her arguing, that smug snowball and his friends had the pleasure of gloating.

Instantly, Hermione's face turned from one of nervousness to one of pure wonder. Her eyes widened and seemed to shine with excitement as she held her wand in her hands. "How?" She looked at Mr. Ollivander in bewilderment.

"The wand chooses the witch, Miss. Granger," he winked at the bushy haired girl. "Here is your box. Now, if you'll step aside, I must settle up with your parents."

Hermione turned quickly to Evie and the two girls shared wide smiles as they hurriedly began talking about their new wands. To anyone looking on it seemed impossible for the two to honestly understand what the other was saying, and yet, the conversation continued with few breaths between them until they were passing the Magical Menagerie and Evie heard a toad croak.

"Are you going to bring a pet? Dad says I can't have one this year, but I might get one later depending on how well I do in my classes," Evie smiled at a small tabby cat yawning in the window.

"No, I think a pet would be too much responsibility this year. I want to focus on doing the best I can in my studies for a while. I'll already be behind everyone else," Hermione fretted.

"I doubt it," Evie answered nonchalantly.

"Why's that?"

"We're all homeschooled in maths, reading, writing, and a bit of history, of course but we don't learn magic until we go to Hogwarts. The most we're taught is how to control our magical outbursts, keeps the tantrums from burning the house down," Evie giggled.

"Could you really burn the house down with a tantrum?" Hermione looked horrified.

"What? Oh, no, of course not! Sorry, that's a joke Dad once told me," Evie reassured her friend.

"Evie, are you already scaring your new friend away?" Cedric teased as he walked up on the talking girls.

"I made a joke and I didn't realize it might not be funny if you don't know it's a joke," Evie bit her lip.

"Was it the tantrum joke?" Evie nodded and Cedric sighed. "Nobody has ever burned a house down with a tantrum. That would require an amount of magic that is impossible for a three year old," Cedric explained calmly.

Hermione seemed immensely relieved to hear from a source more knowledgeable than she. Nodding and smiling, Hermione perked up again. "Where are we going next?"

"Well, we need a cauldron and some other things we'll be using for the next seven years. We've also got to get our robes," Evie remembered a bit excitedly.

"Madam Malkin's is just on the other side of the bank so we'll stop there first," Amos cut through their conversation.

Getting school robes was surprisingly dull compared to getting a wand. Evie and Hermione quickly picked up their uniforms for the student section, but Evie spent half the time looking longingly at the robes with house crests on their chests and house color linings, which Cedric was looking through as he'd grown yet again and needed new robes.

"Why do his robes look different?" Hermione asked as the girls watched Cedric's search.

"He's already been sorted into a House," Evie answered offhandedly before registering the confused look on Hermione's face. "There are four Houses at Hogwarts and when we get there we'll be sorted into one of them."

"Why?"

"Probably so you can make friends easier. The people in your house are supposed to be like you. You've still got to stop by Flourish and Blotts. We should get you _Hogwarts, A History_ so you can learn a bit about it before we go," Evie replied thoughtfully.

"Do many students read it?"

"Probably not. I mean, I've read it…twice. But Dad says not many people read like I do," Evie answered and blushed.

"Mum says the same thing about me," Hermione laughed.

"Ready to go, girls?" Mrs. Granger questioned and the two finally noticed that everyone was making their way towards the counter to pay.

Nodding, Hermione and Evie followed Mrs. Granger and rejoined their group.

"On to Flourish and Blotts," Amos directed as soon as all their items were bagged and paid for.

The walk was incredibly short, as the book store was right next door to the robe shop. However, in that time the Grangers and Amos had already set a plan of action.

"I'm sure Hermione will want to look around," Mrs. Granger reminded her husband.

"Would you mind showing us where to find her required books?" Mr. Granger asked Amos.

"Not a problem at all. Cedric knows how to find his own reading materials, and I'm sure Evie will want to look around as well. We can talk more about anything you need to know," he offered. As soon as the adults cleared the threshold, they were off talking about adult things again.

"I see a friend from school," Cedric turned to Evie. "I'll catch up with you two in a bit." Then he turned and walked right back out of the store.

"Where d'you think he's going?" Hermione asked.

"Probably the Quidditch Supply Store," Evie smiled.

"What is Quidditch?"

"It's only the best sport ever invented!" Evie started to gush, but she quickly realized there was far too much to attempt to explain to Hermione. "I've got an idea."

Grabbing the other girl's hand without a second though, Evie pulled her through the stacks of books until she found what she was looking for.

" _Quidditch Though the Ages_?" Hermione read the title.

"It'll teach you the history of the game, the rules, teams…pretty much everything you'll need to know about it," Evie shrugged. "Most of the kids at Hogwarts will know what it is. It's our biggest sport. What sort of sports do muggles play?"

"My dad is really big into football," Hermione smiled. "But I'm not much into sports. There's also Rugby and Cricket."

"Do you play football with your feet?"

"That's right. Players aren't allowed to touch the ball with their hands, unless it goes out or you're the goalie."

"Goalie?"

"Keeps the other team from getting points."

"Oh, so like a Keeper but on the ground."

"Keeper?"

Suddenly Evie started giggling.

"What?" Hermione furrowed her eyebrows.

"This is going to take some time."

Hermione chuckled lightly, seemingly relieved. "I've got an idea."

"What is it?"

"Let's just start with the basics and then we can write to each other over the summer and just ask whatever questions pop into our heads as we go. That way, I'll know a bit more before we go to Hogwarts and you can learn everything you've ever wanted to know about…muggles?" Evie nodded to assure her she'd said the word right.

"That sounds brilliant! I've never really had a friend besides Cedric…" trailing off, Evie realized too late that she might sound really pathetic to Hermione and a healthy blush began to stain her cheeks.

"I haven't had very many friends either," Hermione practically whispered with a sad smile. "I was sort of worried that nobody would want to be my friend at Hogwarts either because I don't know anything about the school or magic."

"Oh, that reminds me. We've got to get you _Hogwarts_ , _A History_ ," Evie smiled and led Hermione further into the book store. "We'll probably know more than the rest of our year because of this," she said, triumphantly holding the book up to Hermione.

After thirty more minutes, the group left Flourish and Blotts heavily weighed down by books. After stopping in both the magical instrument store for the rest of their school supplies, and the Quidditch supply store to fetch Cedric, the group sat down in the Leaky Cauldron to eat lunch.

The meal was, once again, a mostly silent affair. Mr. and Mrs. Granger had exhausted all their questions about the school they'd be sending their daughter off to, and the world she would become part of. As for Evie, Cedric and Hermione, well, they were just plain worn out from the excitement of the day.

The group parted on a pleasant note, with Evie and Hermione once again promising to write each other throughout the summer and a plan to meet at Kings Cross Station in a month's time so they could head to the train together.

* * *

The two girls spent the next month sending letters back and forth. By the night before they were to leave for Hogwarts, Evie knew that Hermione's parents were muggle teeth healers, and Hermione knew what a healer was. Evie also knew that the muggle term for healer was doctor. Hermione had been very eager to discuss with Evie everything she'd read in _Hogwarts, A History_ as well.

In their last letter the two girls agreed to meet outside of the station because it would be easier than searching the crowds for each other. Evie had already explained to Hermione that they would have to run through a brick wall to get to the platform where the Hogwarts Express waited.

So it was that, at 8:30 in the morning, Evie, Cedric and Amos waited outside of Kings Cross as Hermione and her family drove up. Cars were one of the muggle inventions the wizarding world had still not completely figured out, so Evie was admittedly awestruck when she saw it. The thing was heavy, clunky, and metal. Not to mention, it had a tendency to randomly make noises that sounded like the geese who flew over her house in the summer. Evie decided right then she'd never understand how muggles could be okay traveling in a squawking metal box.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger had already been informed that they could not accompany Hermione onto Platform 9 ¾ so, after they helped her get her bags, they said goodbye to their daughter.

"Good luck sweetheart," Mrs. Granger smiled through tears and hugged Hermione.

"Don't forget to write, you know your mum worries," Mr. Granger winked and kissed the top of Hermione's head.

"Alright, I'll write as soon as I find out what house I'm in. Love you," Hermione promised. She then pushed her luggage away from the curb and joined Evie on the sidewalk before turning to wave her parents off one last time.

"Alright, let's get you lot inside before you miss the train," Amos smiled, ushering the kids through the station to the third pillar between platforms 9 and 10. "Cedric you go first so Hermione can see how it's done."

"Just remember, if you're nervous take it at a run," Cedric told her lining himself in front of the pillar. "But, there's really nothing to be scared of," He smirked and walked quickly at the pillar, disappearing into it.

"Oh!" Hermione jumped in shock. "That's incredible."

"Alright, girls, are you ready?"

"Together?" Evie looked to Hermione.

The bushy haired girl nodded. "Can we run?"

"Of course," Evie smiled.

The girls lined up their luggage side by side and together ran at the pillar, passing through onto Platform 9 ¾. The whistle was blowing and all around them were students greeting each other after a long summer, or parents checking their first years to make sure they had everything. In front of them Cedric was waving for them to meet him closer to the train. Evie, realizing Hermione was experiencing this all for the first time, turned to watch her friend take in the beauty of the Hogwarts Express.

"Wow," Hermione whispered as she took in everything, the witches and wizards all in their robes, the carts of luggage and owls and rats and toads and cats, the platform that had never been there and always been there, then finally, the giant crimson train that was going to take them to school. She was truly in awe.

"Come on, let's get to Cedric. Dad should be right behind us and lots more people will be coming through," Evie explained as she led Hermione through the crowd for a moment, before someone's cart got in their way. "Excuse us."

"Yes, excuse you," A cold voice snapped. Evie and Hermione looked up to see platinum blond hair and pale skin, flanked by two new figures. Both were bulky, but they didn't seem as quick witted as Zabini and Parkinson. Evie surmised they were probably muscle more than anything else.

"Malfoy," Evie snapped back. "Would you mind moving your cart so my friend and I can get through?"

"Since when have you got friends, Diggory? Last I check your best friend was a book," Malfoy snickered while eyeing Hermione as though she were some foreign species not yet discovered. From either side of him the two large oafs laughed as they slowly realized a joke had been told.

"Malfoy, your insults are already stale. I do hope you pick new material before the school year is over or I'll begin thinking you've gone soft. Excited to be a Slytherin finally?"

"Who wouldn't be? I suppose, you'll be a Ravenclaw, or a sad little Hufflepuff," He chortled.

"I don't recall Hufflepuff being very sad when they beat Slytherin's Quidditch team last year." Cedric had appeared behind Malfoy. "Now, I believe these ladies said excuse me. A gentleman would let them pass, or have you forgotten your manners already?"

Malfoy looked to see if his mother, who was a stickler for manners, was watching him. Mrs. Malfoy had been in deep conversation with Mrs. Zabini and was just turning around to see what her son was up to. He quickly moved his cart to let Evie and Hermione by.

"Thank you, Malfoy. You're such a gentleman," Evie smirked as she and Hermione passed, following Cedric to get closer to the train.

"My mother won't be at Hogwarts, Diggory. Don't forget that," Malfoy sneered.

"If that's the best threat you can come up with I'm not worried," Evie hissed back quickly.

"Who was that?" Hermione pulled up beside Evie as they reached their destination.

"That was a lot of bad news," Cedric answered looking back at the Malfoys with a scrunched nose.

"He's an obnoxious brat who thinks he's owed everything. Not to mention he's an idiot."

"You don't know that," Cedric pointed out.

"He thinks people with magic are better than muggles simply because they have magic," Evie scrunched her nose at the thought. "That's enough to tell me he's an idiot."

"Do people really think that?" Hermione frowned.

"Some," Evie felt her face contort to match Hermione's. "Not very many anymore. They're sort of a dying breed, right Cedric?"

"I sure like to think so," he answered confidently. "Don't worry, Hermione. The people you run into like that will be few and far between. Plus, you probably won't be in Slytherin, so nobody in the other houses will treat you bad just because you're Muggleborn."

"Not all Slytherins were like that. Merlin was a Slytherin," Evie pointed out. Then she realized he was really the only example she could think of, and she felt perhaps her former statement was a bit of a lie now.

"I still can't believe he actually existed," Hermione breathed.

"Is everyone settled?" Amos, who was none the wiser to what had just transpired, walked up still as cheery as ever.

"Yeah, I've got all our stuff set to be loaded, and I've found some mates we can sit with," Cedric informed his father.

"Good, good. Well, not much else to do but-" The whistle sounded again, interrupting Amos midsentence. "Well, right then. Time to say goodbye, the train will be leaving soon."

"Bye, Dad." Cedric and Amos hugged and patted each other on the back. It was brief but tight.

"Goodbye, Mr. Diggory." Hermione gave a small wave before following Cedric to the train.

"Dad, what if I end up in Slytherin?" Evie asked, suddenly terrified.

"Oh, Evie you could never end up in Slytherin. I mean just look at you, you're the least Slytherin person I've ever met." Amos hugged his daughter tightly. "But, no matter what house you end up in, I'll be proud of you."

"I'm going to miss you." Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, but she blinked them back.

"I'll miss you too. Just remember, I'm only an owl away. I love you sweetheart, now get on that train." Amos hugged her one last time then gave her a gentle shove towards the train. Cedric was waiting just inside to give her a hand up and Hermione was just behind him. After they were all on Evie leaned out and waved once more to her father before turning and letting Cedric lead them through the compartments.


	5. Hatstalls and Heroes

After they had been situated for a bit and said hello to all of Cedric's school friends Hermione turned to Evie. "How do you know that boy from the platform? He doesn't seem like someone you'd hang out with on purpose."

"Our dads work together at the Ministry. We see his family from time to time just around places." Cedric cut in.

"I'm sorry, but I believe she asked me," Evie teased.

"Why must you always start arguments?"

"Why do you always have to butt in?"

There was a pause as Evie and Cedric just eyed each other. After a moment though, Evie broke out into a smile and Cedric followed suit.

"You two are so weird together," Maxine O'Flaherty laughed. Evie had heard plenty about her since she was one of Hufflepuff's Beaters; she just hadn't expected her to look like she did, all strawberry blonde and bright eyed. She didn't seem the sort to bash a ball into an enemy. "I can't stand my siblings."

"I can't stand him most days. He's just being amazingly bearable today," Evie joked.

"Aw, thanks. I feel the same way about you," Cedric replied.

"My statement still stands," Maxine smiled and the rest of the compartment chuckled lightly.

After that, the older group went back to talk of what they did over the summer, homework, and lots of Quidditch. Evie listened to them chatter away and thought to next year, imagining if she'd be in a compartment all her own with her own friends, discussing Quidditch and school work and things like Cedric and his friends were.

"Evie?" Hermione cut through her thoughts. "Could you explain to me a bit more about this game, Quidditch? Everyone seems to really know loads about it."

"Well that's because almost everyone in this compartment plays on one of the house teams," Evie smiled. "Maxine, there, she plays for Hufflepuff as a Beater. You remember what a Beater does?"

Hermione nodded.

"Cedric is Hufflepuff's Seeker. Heidi and Tamsin are both Chasers, also for Hufflepuff. Grant is actually the Keeper for Ravenclaw, but he and Cedric have known each other since before Hogwarts, back when Grant was a bit chubby," Evie smiled.

"I heard that, Little Diggory," Grant answered over his previous conversation. "Must you tell people I wasn't always this good-looking?'

"Yes, because you keep calling me 'Little Diggory'," Evie answered matter-of-factly.

"Well, I guess we'll both just have to suffer, because you'll always be Little Diggory to me," he sighed dramatically.

"And you'll always be Chubby Grant to me," Evie replied with an overly affectionate lilt.

Before anything else could happen a pudgy boy with mouse brown hair, rather large ears, and worried eyes that matched his hair, knocked on the compartment door looking absolutely petrified. Heidi answered it with a kind smile and the whole compartment waited patiently and politely for the boy to speak.

It took him three minutes to do so. He seemed to be struggling to breathe, weather from the attention of whatever was worrying him, Evie couldn't say.

"Have any of you seen a toad? He answers to Trevor."

A mumble of 'no's and 'sorry's traveled through the compartment.

"Gran's going to kill me when she finds out I've lost him again," he immediately started to fret.

Evie looked at Hermione and saw mirrored back on her friends face the same mix of pity and curiosity. "What's your name?"

"Neville Longbottom," he mumbled.

"Hello, Neville. I'm Hermione Granger and this is my friend Evelyn Diggory."

"You can call me Evie. Would you like help looking for your toad?"

"Really? Oh, yeah that'd be great thanks." Neville smiled like it was the first good news he'd heard all day.

"Excellent, we'll be back," Evie told Cedric.

"Wait, shouldn't we change before we start looking? We'll need to have our robes on before we stop," Hermione pointed out.

Evie nodded and the two girls grabbed their robes and changed before joining Neville again in his search for a toad.

"Where have you gone so far?" Evie asked.

"This is the first compartment. Mine is right next door," Neville pointed and frowned.

"Alright, I'll go the other way. You two can continue down and take those compartments two at a time. Then you'll get through them faster," Hermione took control of the situation quickly.

"Are you sure?" Evie asked.

"Yes. If you find him, you can just come get me. If not, you both can backtrack to me and help me finish looking."

"Alright, are you ready Neville?"

"Uh…yes?"

Evie had the courtesy to wonder if it was a bit rude that she and Hermione took over the search and told him where to go. Looking over the incredibly nervous boy, however, she had to admit that she doubted he would've been able to organize them in his current state.

With an encouraging smile and a nod they parted way. Evie took one side of the train and Neville took the other. Each compartment produced the same answers however, and near the end she began to worry Neville's toad was lost forever.

When they reached the last compartments Evie sighed and turned around, fully prepared to comfort Neville about his still lost toad.

"Trevor!" Neville called out before she ever got the chance. The boy scooped up his pet and turned to her with a bright and somewhat relieved, smile.

Smiling back, Evie said, "Great! I'm going to go tell Hermione we've found him."

"Thanks for helping me."

"Anytime."

Then Evie waved and made her way back down the line of compartments, looking in all the ones she didn't check after she noticed Hermione was no longer visible. She found her closer to the exact opposite end of the train, in a compartment with two boys. One was raven-haired and wearing round rimmed glasses. The other had red hair, freckles, and was very tall, even in a sitting position.

"Hermione?"

"Evie, come look at what I did," Hermione requested excitedly.

The brunette walked further into the compartment and looked to the raven-haired boys glasses. It was then that she noticed he had bright green eyes. Something about the combination was familiar to her, but she couldn't remember why.

"His glasses were broken but I fixed them," Hermione explained excitedly.

"Oh, excellent. Have you all been doing magic?"

"He tried, but his spell wasn't a good one." Hermione pointed to the redhead.

"Oh? Did you not do it right or was it actually a bad spell?"

"My brother Fred gave it to me, but I don't think it was real," the freckled boy mumbled as his faced began to turn as red as his hair.

"That doesn't seem very nice,' Evie frowned. "I mean, what if you'd done it front of lots of people?"

"I think he meant me to."

Evie tilted her head for a moment. "I'm Evelyn Diggory, but you can call me Evie."

"Diggory? Does your dad work at the Ministry?"

"Yes."

"You live right near us outside Ottery St. Catchpole."

"Are you the youngest Weasley boy? Um…Rob?"

"Ron."

"Right, sorry," Evie grimaced. "I met your brother Bill once. He's graduated now, hasn't he?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, he works as a Curse Breaker for Gringott's now."

"That's really impressive."

For a moment a silence fell over them, until Evie realized Hermione and the raven-haired boy were just watching. Neither seemed to really know what was going on, though Hermione at least knew what Gringott's was and, Evie thought it safe to guess, so did the green eyed boy since he had to get Galleons in order to buy his school things.

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name," Evie offered kindly to the other boy.

"I'm Harry Potter," he said as he held out his hand for her to shake.

For the smallest second the room froze. Evie forced her eyes not to widen, her mouth not to drop, her voice not to quiver or squeak. Then, with a slightly shaky hand, she took his and shook.

"Very nice to meet you," she almost whispered. The girl then cleared her throat and turned to her friend. "Neville's found Trevor."

"Oh, that's great. Where is he?"

"Back in his compartment, I think," Evie shrugged. "We should get back to Cedric."

"Right," Hermione nodded and stood. "You two should get dress, we'll be arriving soon."

Evie watched her friend sweep out of the compartment, her robes trailing behind her, before turning back to Ron and Harry.

"See you later. Good luck with the sorting and all that." Then she left.

* * *

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place shortly in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Professor McGonagall, whom Evie had heard a bit about from Cedric, was telling the rather large group of first years.

The Head of Gryffindor House looked every bit as intimidating and awe worthy as Evie had pictured her. She had mostly black hair tied into a tight bun at the back of her head, emerald green robes and a tall matching hat, a mouth set in a firm line, and steely blue eye that peered at them with an air of unmatchable authority.

"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." Then Professor McGonagall left the chamber.

"I wonder what sort of spells we're going to need for this test." Hermione turned to Evie.

"I wonder if we're even going to need spells," Evie responded.

"What do you think they're going to make us do?"

"I don't know. I hope it's nothing embarrassing. Dad and Cedric would never tell me," Evie frowned.

"Why not?"

"Dad said it was a rite of passage. No student is supposed to know how sorting works until they go through it."

Then, someone behind her screamed, stopping any more fretting she might've done. Evie, and everyone around her, turned and gasped when they saw twenty or so ghosts coming through the back wall. They were sort of transparent and almost ivory. They were deep in conversation about someone called Peeves.

They didn't notice the first years for a decent bit of time, then finally one in a ruff and tights realized they were there. "What are you all doing here?" His question was met with silence.

"Oh they must be first years. About to get sorted, are we?" A rather round ghost dressed as a friar smiled excitedly. Evie and a few others nodded, not really knowing what else to do. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! That's my old house, you know."

"Move along, the Sorting Ceremony is about to begin." Professor McGonagall ushered the ghosts out. "Now form a line." That was directed at the first years, who obediently did as they were told.

The Great Hall was everything and nothing Evie had imagined. It was filled to the brim already with students and professors alike. The students sat at four tables, each wearing distinctive house colors, green and silver for Slytherin, gold and maroon for Gryffindor, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, and yellow and black for Hufflepuff. All of the tables held golden plates and goblets which were empty and caused Evie wondered how food served.

The table at the head of the Great Hall held all the professors, including Hagrid, the giant, hairy and seemingly friendly man who'd introduced himself as the keeper of keys and grounds before leading the first years across the lake on boats that needn't be rowed. There was also an empty chair where Evie imagined Professor McGonagall usually sat when she wasn't running the sorting of first years.

There were candles floating above the tables, just suspended in midair, and even though she had read about them in _Hogwarts, A History_ , they were still amazing to look at. The ceiling was also quite a sight; showing a velvety black sky with millions of twinkling stars. Evie only partially heard Hermione explaining that is was bewitched. She knew this, but to actually see it made it hard not to believe that there wasn't a ceiling at all.

Professor McGonagall setting down a four-legged stool brought Evie's attention back to the task at hand. On top of the stool she placed a pointed wizard's hat. It was torn and sewed back together everywhere the girl looked. It was patched, ratty, dirty, and Evie couldn't understand what was so important about the ugly old thing. However, all of the Great Hall was completely focused on it, so Evie focused too. Then it shocked her and every other first year when it began to sing:

 _Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.  
You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.  
There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.  
You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;  
You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;  
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;  
Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.  
So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!_

The entire hall burst into applause after the Sorting Hat finished his song. He bowed to each of the four tables in turn, and then became quite still again.

"We're just trying on a hat," Evie laughed to Hermione because she was honestly insanely relieved.

Hermione, on the other hand, actually looked a bit disappointed.

"Don't worry, we'll be doing magic soon enough," Evie reassured her friend, and was rewarded with a smile.

Professor McGonagall then stepped forward holding a large scroll of parchment. "When I call your name you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"

She was a Hufflepuff, and Bones, Susan soon joined her. Boot, Terry was a Ravenclaw, and Brocklehurst, Mandy was too. Brown, Lavender became a Gryffindor, but Bulstrode, Millicent was a Slytherin.

There were only three Cs in her year, two boys that went to Ravenclaw and Malfoy's lackey Crabbe, Vincent who went to Slytherin. After that only one girl, Davis, Tracey, was ahead of her. She was sorted into Slytherin and all too soon Evie heard her name.

"Diggory, Evelyn." She gasped and jumped a bit.

"Go on, it'll be alright." Hermione coaxed.

With no real choice Evie stepped forward. It was quieter than she'd expected. The hat was a bit heavy, but surprisingly soft. She placed it on her head and sat on the stool as she was instructed.

"Oh, hello," the hat began talking in her head. "What do we have here?"

"H-hello."

"Well, aren't you interesting?"

"Interesting? What d'you mean by that?"

"Your mind, girl. It's quite fascinating."

"Thank you?"

"Yes, but where to put you…" The hat managed to mumble though it, or he, was in her mind. "Such curiosity, such a thirst for knowledge, you'd do well in Ravenclaw. There is also something else here. Ah, there it is. Chivalry, loyalty, pride… the makings of a Gryffindor."

"What about Hufflepuff?"

"HA!" Evie blushed furiously. "You're not suited for Hufflepuff at all."

"But my father and brother are Hufflepuffs."

"Hmm…yes, the Diggory boys are, but you are not. Not humble enough. Don't worry though; you aren't cunning enough to be a Slytherin."

"Do you normally insult people?"

"Honesty isn't an insult, girl. Perhaps I'll put you in your mother's house. She was much like you, if a bit less mouthy, and she did well in Gryffindor."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Yes, yes, I think that's what I'll do."

"No, wait!"

"What is it now, child?"

"You've got something wrong."

"I beg your pardon?" Evie actually felt the hat move as though it were literally taken aback.

"My mother wasn't a Gryffindor. She was a Ravenclaw."

"She was not. I sorted her myself, I think I'd know."

"But she was. My father told me."

"Then your father is mistaken."

"He can't be mistaken. They were in the same year."

"They were not."

"Yes, they were," Evie insisted, quickly becoming exasperated with the stubborn hat.

"I'm the stubborn one?" The hat asked, affronted.

"Can you hear everything I'm thinking?"

"My job is to delve into your mind, you foolish child. Why would I not be able to hear what you're thinking?"

Evie scuffed. "Then you'll know my mother was a Ravenclaw."

"She wasn't. Your father's lying."

"He is not! He has her school scarf and everything. She was a Ravenclaw."

"Your mother was a Gryffindor. Anyone telling you different is lying. I am the Sorting Hat; I know who I sorted and where I sorted them. You will be a Gryffindor like your mother before you."

"But-"

"If nothing else, your willingness to argue just proves that I'm right. Only a Gryffindor would have the gall to call the Sorting Hat wrong."

"Wait-"

"I have made my choice. Couldn't be anything other than…GRYFFINDOR!"

A cheer irrupted from the maroon and gold table. Evie felt heavy as she stood and removed the hat from her head. Setting it back on the stool she walked slowly over to the table and found an empty spot. She forced a smile as she was welcomed before turning numbly back to the sorting.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, Hatstall." An older student with blonde hair and green eyes smirked at her.

"I'm sorry?" Evie startled.

"You were up there more than five minutes. It never takes the Hat that long to figure people out, well, almost never," he corrected. "That makes you a Hatstall."

"Is," Evie hesitated. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Probably means something's wrong with you," he smirked.

"Knock it off, McLaggen," a girl with golden brown skin narrowed her eyes at the boy. She offered Evie a smile. "I'm Alicia. Being a Hatstall isn't a bad thing, just means you gave the hat more trouble than usual. Rumor has it Professor McGonagall was a Hatstall, so I'd say you're in good company," Alicia smiled.

Evie sighed in relief. "Thanks," she smiled at the older girl, who nodded then turned back to her friends.

She had missed, during her brief conversation with the upperclassmen, Fay Dunbar joining her in Gryffindor as well as a boy called Entwhistle going to Ravenclaw. Justin Finch-Fletchley was the first Hufflepuff in a while and the house was once again forgotten when Seamus Finnigan joined the Gryffindors. Each time a person was sorted their new house let out a resounding cheer, though none seemed as rambunctious as the Gryffindors.

"Granger, Hermione."

Evie watched as her friend glanced back in her direction. She offered an encouraging smile she couldn't be sure the other girl actually saw and then waited with bated breath for four agonizing minutes as the hat deliberated.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat called out through the hall and Hermione beamed.

Evie made room quickly as Hermione practically skipped over to her and sat down.

"I'm so happy we're in the same house," Hermione almost squealed.

"Me too. I was so worried when I got Gryffindor. I thought for sure we'd be Ravenclaws together," Evie smiled, almost forgetting what had happened between her and the hat.

"Is that why you looked so sad?"

Evie bit her lip. "Well, you're my first real friend and I heard Ravenclaws have most of their classes with Hufflepuffs."

"We would've still been friends, not that it matters now."

"Longbottom, Neville."

"I know but it still would've been hard," Evie smiled. "I don't make friends easily."

"Me either," Hermione confessed.

"Anyway, I'm really glad we're in the same house. I hope Dad's not too disappointed."

"I'm sure he'll be proud of you no matter what."

A cheer erupted around them and the two girls looked up to see a very apprehensive Neville making his way over to the Gryffindor table. Evie and Hermione joined in the clapping and when the nervous boy sat, Evie gave him her most encouraging smile. Neville continued to look as worried about his placement as Evie felt.

Evie paid much less attention as the sorting continued. She glanced over at the Hufflepuff table, searching for her brother. There were too many students to see clearly however, and she soon gave up. As her eyes wandered aimlessly her mind pondered what the Sorting Hat had said.

Why would it confuse her mother's house? Evie didn't remember hearing in any of the stories her father had told that her mother had almost been in any other house, though it was possible that just never came up. But for the hat to honestly mistake the house she'd been in must have meant it had been a very close decision at least, but her mother certainly wasn't a Hatstall, was she? Even if her father had been determined that she not know what the sorting process was, Evie felt confident he would've told her if her mother had been that hard to sort.

Something pulled Evie from her musings then. When she regained focus, she realized it was the stillness of the hall. Everyone had stopped talking. Turning she saw Harry Potter making his way up to the Sorting Hat and immediately understood. Everyone was waiting to see where he would end up.

He didn't surpass her time, but he did pass Neville's time, and then Hermione's. At about the four and a half minute mark the hat moved and the hall moved with it.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The noise that filled the hall was deafening. It was like the Gryffindors felt like they had won somehow. Harry looked just as elated as their new house sounded when he took the hat off and made his way to the table.

The sorting went much quicker after that. No other children gave the hat any sort of trouble. Evie did note that Ron Weasley joined the rest of his family and Harry in Gryffindor. She also noticed, without the slightest bit of shock, that Zabini followed Malfoy and Parkinson into Slytherin.

The Sorting Hat was taken away and the Professor who sat in the middle of the table at the head of the hall got to his feet. Evie immediately recognized him from all the chocolate frog cards she'd seen him on. There was Albus Dumbledore in the flesh, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald. He had long silver hair and a beard to match it. He wasn't as tall as Evie had imagined he'd be, but he still held the attention of the entire hall with the least bit of effort. He had the air of a wise and much revered man which, he would, considering the respect he received from most of the wizarding community.

Professor Dumbledore opened his arms wide and beamed at his students, as though this sight pleased him most in the world. "Welcome!"

Evie held her breath for whatever brilliant words of wisdom were about to come from his mouth.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" Then he sat down and the hall erupted into cheers again.

Evie blinked once, twice, a third time before she realized that Professor Dumbledore had indeed sat down. Nothing at Hogwarts was anything like she thought it would be. Not the infallible sorting, not even the great Albus Dumbledore. A heart sinking bubble of disappointment was building in her chest and the small girl had to blink rapidly to hold back tears. She'd waited her whole life to come to Hogwarts. Was the school going to disappoint her at every turn? Had she perhaps raised it on to a pedestal it would never reach in actuality?

A smell, something deliciously intoxicating, filled her nose. Looking down she saw the empty tables had filled with a feast the likes of which she could've never imagined. Evie's stomach let out a groan. With a sigh, she started pulling food on to her plate. She decided to worry about the upsetting sorting and confusing words from Professor Dumbledore after she had eaten.

Throughout the evening as the food disappeared and the dessert took its place Evie learned many things. The ghost of her house was Nearly Headless Nick, but he preferred Sir Nicholas, and he was indeed nearly headless. Classes would start them off learning simple magic. Seamus Finnigan was a halfblood, muggle dad and witch mum. Neville, on the other hand had been raised by his gran who was a witch. His whole family had thought he was a squib until he was eight. They weren't even sure he was going to get into Hogwarts. But lucky for him, he did. Evie got the feeling it would've been really hard on him if he didn't.

After all the food vanished, Professor Dumbledore stood again. This time instead of random words that made no sense he actually gave them instructions. The Forbidden Forest was, Evie couldn't help but think, obviously forbidden. A creepy looking older man with a black cat, known respectively as Mr. Filch and Mrs. Norris, had a list kilometers long of things that weren't allowed. He also wanted everyone to remember magic wasn't to be done in the hallways. Then he gave a warning that made Evie feel a chill run down her spine.

"Finally, I must tell you that this year the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

What was most weird about the situation was that, the older students didn't seem fazed by the warning at all. They just sang the Hogwarts School Song and the feast was over.

Percy Weasley, one of Gryffindor's Prefects and Ron's older brother, walked the first year Gryffindors through the castle and up to Gryffindor Tower. On the way Evie found out that Peeves was a poltergeist who liked to play tricks on everyone at Hogwarts. The only one, Percy told them, who could control Peeves was the Bloody Baron.

At the entrance to the Gryffindor common rooms there was a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" She asked Percy.

"Caput Draconis."

The portrait swung open to reveal the entrance to the common rooms, which was a giant hole in the wall they all had to scramble through.

Gryffindor common room was a plethora of gold and maroon. There were cozy looking armchairs everywhere, and a fireplace at the back wall, also surrounded by armchairs. The chairs were all maroon and the floors were a wood, covered by a giant, old, golden plush rug. There were bookshelves, which Evie was admittedly happy to see, and a nice cushioned window sill she wouldn't have minded sitting in. There were also tapestries handing from some of the walls, and though she wasn't able to get a good look at them, they seemed more for insulation than decoration.

Percy directed the boys to one set of spiral staircases and the girls to another. They climbed to the top and found their room. Inside were five four poster beds with gold velvet drapes, sheets, and blankets. None of the girls felt much like talking, and after learning that their trunks had already been brought to the room and set next to a bed, they found their things, changed, and fell into deep sleeps.


	6. Mountain Troll or Fate?

On the morning of the first day of classes Evie once again woke up early. She was surprised to find Hermione was already up. She would soon realize her friend was a morning person.

"Good morning!" Hermione turned to face her friend, fastening the button on her robes.

"Morning," Evie yawned. "What time is it?" She tried to pat down her hair a bit before giving up and deciding the only thing for it would be a shower.

"Only 6:30. We've got another thirty minutes before breakfast begins. I asked Percy last night."

"Right, I should shower." Evie slowly swung her feet over the bed into the cold morning air of the tower. "Why are you up so early anyway?" She grabbed her clothes and brush and realized they were the only two girls awake.

"I wanted to get down to breakfast early, maybe find out where the Owlery is before class so I could send a letter to my parents."

"Oh, that's right! I've got to tell my dad where I was sorted." Evie stopped herself from adding that she also had to ask him about what the Sorting Hat had said to her.

After she showered and dressed in her school robes for the first time Evie stood in from of the mirror brushing out her hair and musing to herself. There she was, in Gryffindor colors and it all seemed surreal. Every time she had pictured this moment, she'd always been standing in blue and bronze. She braided her hair down to one side and took a moment to evaluate herself.

"Evie?" Hermione's muffled voice drifted through from the other room.

"Coming." Evie finished her braid quickly and exited the bathroom. "Let's see if we can find Cedric at breakfast. He'll tell us where our classes are."

They left the room just as all the other girls were waking up. Outside of the portrait of the Fat Lady they finally got a good view of the school.

The thing about Hogwarts, as they soon discovered, was that it wasn't that easy to find your way around. Not because the school was huge, which it was, but because things were very rarely what they appeared to be.

There were one hundred and forty-two staircases, and some of them changed at their leisure, some only moved once a week, and some moved every few hours. There were also ridiculously narrow ones, terrifyingly rickety ones, and ones with stairs that sometimes weren't there; a fact that Evie learned in the most unfortunate way.

"Ahhh!" She stepped and her foot began disappearing into the step.

"What's happened?" Hermione turned to find Evie knee deep in what should have been solid wood.

"Well, one minute it was there and the next it wasn't." Evie tugged at her leg to no avail. "What do I do?"

"Maybe there's a spell to get it out." Hermione's eyebrows furrowed and the corners of her mouth drooped.

"Good idea. Have you got a spell?"

"Well…no."

"Right, no, yeah, it's alright. Hey, you there! You're the Weasley twins right?" Evie reached out a hand to halt the identical ginger boys as they stepped passed her laughing.

"Did you hear someone calling us, Fred?"

"I think not, George." The one called Fred laughed and almost continued walking.

"Oh, it's fine. I thought you might be able to help but, maybe I was wrong. I'll just see if I can get Percy to help. He probably knows more about it than you do anyway." Evie waved them off.

"Did you hear that, Georgie? Some little first year doubts our abilities." Fred turned back around.

"Yes, kids these days have got no respect for their elders." George shook his head in mock disappointment.

"Well, you are the ones Dumbledore was talking to about not going into the forest, aren't you?" Evie asked.

"We might be," George eyed her more closely.

"What's it to you?" Fred finished.

"That would mean you're able to get past the caretaker and his cat that's everywhere, right?"

"It does," Fred answered.

"So, I'd say you might very well know this castle better than even he does."

"Quite probably." George nodded and smirked.

"Enough to help a first year out of a disappearing step? Said first year might owe you a cover story for whatever reason it is you're up so early."  
Evie held her breath as both twins came in close to look her over.

"I like this one Fred, she's got potential."

"I agree, Georgie. Count of three then?"

George nodded and on three Fred grabbed her leg and George called out a spell neither she nor Hermione had ever heard and her leg was free.

"Oh, thanks." Evie rubbed her freshly sprung leg and looked up at the Weasley twins smiling.

"Don't forget you owe us," Fred warned. "If anyone asks we were helping you this morning."

"You _were_ helping me this morning."

As the twins turned and continued their decent of the staircase Evie heard Fred say to George, "Potential, indeed." Then they were out of earshot, but Hermione and Evie made sure to follow them down so they could get to the Great Hall.

"What d'you think you've just covered for?" Hermione pursed her lips.

"Does it matter? They can't be getting into too much trouble on the first day back," Evie laughed. "You remember what step it was that disappeared right?"  
Hermione nodded. "Good, let's not touch that one again."

* * *

Two days later Evie received a response from her father.

 _Dear Evie,_  
 _Congratulations on getting sorted into Gryffindor! I couldn't be prouder! Don't forget to write me soon, let me know how your classes are going. Are you and Hermione keeping up alright? Dumbledore can be a bit shocking when you first meet him, yes. But he is not mad, I assure you. There is no one I would trust more to look after you and your brother. Speaking of which let Cedric know I expect him to write me a bit more this year. How is he getting on? Don't forget to ask him if you need any help, after all what are big brothers for, right?_

 _I wish I could help you understand why the Sorting Hat said mum was a Gryffindor. Maybe it is possible that old hat is finally making some mistakes. He's been sorting kids since before I was a student you know? Getting a bit on in years I daresay. Well as on as a hat can get anyway. I promise you though, if the hat sees something of Gryffindor in you and believes you'll do well there, even if it was wrong about your mum, trust that you belong in Gryffindor. I miss you sweetheart, and I love you._

 _Dad_

Reading her dad confirming that she was not wrong about her mother was a relief. Finding out that he didn't know what the Sorting Hat had messed up was a bit disheartening, but his assurances that she was in the right house gave her the confidence to trust the sorting.

In the end, Evie wrote back, letting her father know everything was going well, but that it was the second day so she didn't have much to say about classes. She also promised to write more at the end of the week and force Cedric to write as well. Most of all she thanked him for making her feel better and let him know she was also happy with her house, despite the weird sorting.

* * *

By the end of the first week Evie had put each of her classes into two categories: classes she dreaded, and classes she couldn't wait to get back to. History of magic, Herbology and Potions were terrible. She did, however like learning about the stars on Wednesday nights. She also found herself quite taken with Charms. Transfiguration seemed like it was going to be a bit of a struggle but Evie craved the challenge, and to make Professor McGonagall proud.

Unfortunately, while Defense Against the Dark Arts had been a class she had been looking forward to, Evie soon discovered that Professor Quirrell was a bit of a joke. Jumpy and stammering, he seemed the least likely person qualified to teach them defense against anything. His classroom smelled of garlic and though he claimed the turban was a gift from an African prince after he fought off zombies for him, nobody believed the story because he seemed embarrassed and desperate to change the subject when Seamus Finnigan asked about it. Evie highly suspected that the turban was so desperately important to him that he never took it off as there was a rather unusual smell coming from it.

Flying, which only happened on Thursday afternoons, had been difficult for Evie. She had hoped she could get over her fear of heights, but when they were told to call their brooms to them she was unable to. All around her students where calling their brooms with confidence, but when Evie tried to call 'up' her voice cracked and she could hardly reach a whisper.

"You'll never get your broom to you like that, Miss Diggory. Say it with confidence." Madam Hooch stopped in front of Evie and frowned at her lack of progress.

"I can't." Evie lowered her head, blushing uncontrollably.

The Flying Professor was just trying to help, but calling attention to Evie's pitiful attempts was certainly not helping. Not in Evie's eyes at least.

"Why not?"

Evie turned a deeper shade of pink. More and more students were look at her and her broom that was still firmly planted on the ground. She mumbled out her response, knowing it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear.

"What's that? Speak up."

"She fell off a broom when she was six," Ron's voice sounded too loud in Evie's ears.

The girl internally chastised herself for forgetting that he would know. She probably even jogged his memory of the incident by telling him she met Bill.

"I was talking to Miss Diggory, Mr. Weasley," the Professor eyed Ron wearily, but she didn't take house points away. "Is that true?" She lowered her voice as she turned back to the brunette being questioned.

Evie nodded.

"Whose broom?"

"My brother's."

"Cedric, right? He plays for Hufflepuff now."

Evie nodded again.

"Why did you fall off?"

"I let go. I was so excited to be flying so high and I let go. He tried to level off and I lost my balance."

"D'you know the difference between riding on someone else's broom and riding your own?"

Evie looked at her professor, confusion etched on her face.

"Control, Miss Diggory. You're in control of when the broom levels off, when it dips, when it turns. You always know when it's okay to let go and when your hands need to be on the broom." The yellow eyed woman smiled. "But for safety's sake, let's leave our hands on the broom at all times. Pick it up for now, we'll work on calling for it as your confidence returns."

Evie nodded, feeling only slightly better about the situation and wishing, more than anything, that Malfoy and Parkinson had not seen that moment. They snickered at her as she bent forward to grab her broom off the ground.

Lucky for Evie, her own ordeal was forgotten rather quickly when Neville lost control of his broom and fell off, breaking his wrist in the process. The whole scene felt like watching what happened to her, but from the sidelines. Evie felt bad for Neville and worse that she felt so relieved that she might not have to actually ride a broom that day.

Things got even more interesting when Malfoy stole the Remembrall Neville's gran had sent him that morning and challenged Harry to get it from him. The boys took to brooms and Malfoy, never being one for physical altercations, tossed the Remembrall as hard as he could. Harry chased after it like a natural born Seeker, and surprisingly, caught it. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall witnessed the whole thing from up in the castle and called Harry away. The ordeal was more than enough to make everyone, even Malfoy and Parkinson, forget about Evie's fear of flying, at least until their next flying lesson.

* * *

Evie couldn't, for the life of her, remember how she'd ended up in her current predicament. Running like her life depended on it, hoping Filch and Mrs. Norris wouldn't find the group out of bed. They just had to all be Gryffindors too, didn't they?

She and Neville hadn't meant to be out after curfew, at least. She'd only gone to the Hospital Wing to comfort him and make sure he was alright after his fall. Truly it was the moving staircases that had gotten them lost on the way back to their common room and then, by the time they'd found their way it was after curfew. They ran right into Harry, Ron and Hermione, only to find out the Fat Lady had gone off somewhere. What had possessed them to join the group on their rule breaking excursion was beyond her. She couldn't even remember the conversation that had resulted in them all being in the trophy room together, especially when she'd known all along Malfoy would never show.

Regardless of not knowing why she was there, Evie was there, panting and leaning against a wall. She had never run so far and so fast in her life. It seemed everyone was fairing just as badly as she was. Harry had slid down the wall panting. Neville was bent over, wheezing.

"I…told…you," Hermione clutched the stitch in her chest. "I…told…you."

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," Ron cut in. "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy tricked you. You realized that don't you?" Hermione turned to Harry.

"Hermione," Evie sighed, finally breathing close to normal again. "Save it for when we get back to the common room. Then give them the reprimanding they deserve." Evie glared at Harry and Ron, but she really didn't feel like hearing Hermione gloat while they were still in danger of detention or expulsion.

"Let's go," was Harry's only response.

They didn't get very far before Peeves appeared, singing and threatening to turn them in.

"Should tell Filch, I should," Peeves said saintly. "It's for your own good." His eyes glittered wickedly.

"Get out of the way Peeves," Ron snapped swiping at him.

"Ron, don't–" Evie tried to warn, but it was too late.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

They ran down to the end of the corridor, right into a locked door.

"This is it!" Ron was moaning. "We're done for. This is the end." He, Harry and Neville began frantically banging on the locked door. They could hear Filch's footsteps as he ran as fast as he could to get to Peeves.

"Oh, Merlin, move." Evie grabbed all three of their robes and tugged with all of her strength to pull them away from the door.

Hermione stepped in front of the door. "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled in and quickly closed the door behind them. Evie sighed in relief, but when she opened her eyes she realized she had relaxed too soon.

It was clear at once that there had been a perfectly good reason the door was lock. Inside there was stone walls and floors. On the floor there was a wooden door with a latch. But none of this was the reason the door was lock. Standing over this trapdoor was an unreal horror. A monster dog, with three heads and red eyes stood there. It was a giant among giants, with his ears reaching the ceiling. All three mouths were open and drooling. Ropes of saliva fell from yellow fangs the size of a 5 year old.

Evie squeaked, as the terrible realization that they were surely going to die, sunk in.

"Get off, Neville." Harry's voice began to register. Apparently Neville had also noticed the bringer of death standing in the corner. "What?"

The beast was beginning to get over its own surprise at the five new bodies down its corridor. Its body began to tighten as it readied it's self to pounce and a low but thunderous growl was slowly rising it its throat.

"Door." Evie managed to whisper breathlessly. She was shaking all over and was finding it near impossible to breathe. "Door," she said a bit stronger. Her back was pressed against whoever was behind her and their back was pressed firmly against the door. "Open the door!"

The door swung open and they fell backwards. Evie reached up and slammed the door, then they all scrambled to their feet and sprinted as far away from the door as they could get. Filch was gone and so was Peeves, but none of them noticed. It was all Evie could do to not keep looking back and make sure the dog was still behind the door and not bounding down the corridors after them.

When they got to Gryffindor tower the Fat Lady was back. "Where on earth have you all been?" She asked taking in their disheveled clothes and red and sweaty faces.

"Never mind that…pig snout, pig snout," Harry rushed and the portrait swung open. They scrambled in and crumpled into the armchairs in the common room. They all sat in silence for a while. Then Ron spoke.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school? If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

Hermione found her voice and her anger at that moment. "You don't use your eye, any of you, do you?" She snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."

"It was standing on a trapdoor," Evie was still slouched in the airchair closest to the fire place, which was thankfully no longer ablaze. "That thing is obviously here guarding something."

Hermione nodded, and then glared at Harry and Ron. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. You could've gotten us killed – or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." With that, she stood up and walked up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. Evie watched her go, wondering if maybe she ought to explain to her friend that death was most definitely worse than expulsion.

"No, we don't mind," Ron cut through her thoughts. "You'd think we'd dragged her along wouldn't you?"

"You really are thick, aren't you?" Evie rolled her eyes and sat up. "This, all of this, is your fault. You just had to try to fight Malfoy, even though we kept telling you he was tricking you. Did you listen? Of course not, you had to whip them out to see who had the bigger wand. Never mind I've known him since we were seven, or that that we're your housemates not sneaky little Slytherins, you just know everything, don't you? Except that you two keep making it abundantly clear that you haven't the slightest clue. Here's an idea, next time everyone around you is telling you it's a trap, don't walk into it!" Evie stopped waving her hands about and stood. "Idiots." With one final glare in their direction she followed after Hermione, eager to finally get some sleep.

* * *

Evie and Hermione managed, in the month leading up to Halloween, to alienate themselves from their entire peer group except Neville. Weather because of their bookworm nature or Hermione's prissiness, Evie could not say. She could say, however, that she was less of an outcast than Hermione. Though, if Evie had to guess, she'd say people liked her just a bit more because she could often be heard winning verbal sparring matches with Slytherins. Regardless, Evie had stuck by Hermione, seeing as the bushy haired brunette was her first true friend and the only person she liked who could match her intelligence.

Evie also spent much of her time wondering about the trapdoor under the three-headed dog. She did most of it in private, as Hermione flat out refused to address the situation. She worried someone would overhear them and they'd retroactively get detention, something Evie was pretty sure wasn't possible. Nevertheless, she could not convince Hermione to talk to her. She decided it was best not to bring it up to Neville, who seemed scarred enough by the incident, and she was not talking to Harry and Ron, or they weren't talking to her. She wasn't actually sure which; she just knew they had not spoken since that night.

Halloween started off much the same way the rest of the month had. Evie and Hermione were up and dressed before the other girls. They walked down to breakfast alone and spent their time eating and talking largely among themselves. They finished their food and made their way to Charms. They had no idea that class was going to change everything.

In Charms, Professor Flitwick allowed them to work on making objects float. He decided to split the class into pairs. Evie ended up paired with Harry, which wasn't her first choice, but at least it wasn't Seamus who was always blowing things up. Hermione ended up paired with Ron. Evie feared they wouldn't both make it through the class alive, which was a shame as she'd rather not have to explain to Mr. and Mrs. Granger why their daughter was in Azkaban for murder.

As the lesson progressed Evie turned to Harry and leaned in close. "Have you been wondering what that three-headed dog has been hiding?"

"What?"

"I can't stop thinking about it and Hermione doesn't want to talk about it."

Harry paused for a minute and considered her. "We were too, but I think I might actually know what it is."

"You do?"

"Well, not completely. I mean, I think I know where it came from."

"You're saying it wrong. It's Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa; the gar must be nice and long." Hermione's frustrated voice cut through their discussion and the two looked over at their friends.

"You do it if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

Evie knew right away that Ron had made a mistake, as Hermione was sure to show him up.

Hermione rolled up her sleeves, gave a swish and flick and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather rose into the air and hovered about four meters above them. Professor Flitwick cried out excitedly. "Oh, well done! Everyone, see here, Miss Granger's done it!" He clapped, proudly.

Evie, not one to be shown up in her best class, started focusing on the assignment and had her feather following Hermione's in no time. Harry gave it a try, but the feather didn't budge. He was a bit dejected after that, but not nearly as angry as Ron was. The redhead's mood stayed fowl the entire rest of the class.

"It's levi-o-sa." Evie and Hermione were right behind Ron as he mimicked her to Harry. "Honestly, it's no wonder hardly anyone can stand her," he continued as they pushed their way through the corridors. "She's a nightmare."

Tears welled up in Hermione's eye and she pushed past Harry and Ron and ran. Anger swelled through Evie as she watched her go.

"I think she heard you," Harry said.

"So, she must've noticed she's only got one friend," Ron sort of mumbled. It was then that Evie snapped.

"Ronald Weasley." She quickened her pace to overtake them and make sure he saw the fury she felt. "If you ever make that girl cry again I will hex you into oblivion and bring you back just to hex you again!" She started to walk off then turned back. "You know, I'm beginning to think the Sorting Hat meant to place you in Slytherin."  
As she turned to rush after Hermione, Evie caught a glimpse of both of their faces turning for shock to guilt. She felt satisfied for all of two minutes while she searched the girls' loo for Hermione. When she found her, she was in a stall sniffling.

"Hermione?"

"Please, just leave me alone." Her teary response came from one of the middle stalls.

"No," Moved to where the voice was coming from and leaned against the door. "Forget about Ron, he's an idiot."

"But he's right." Hermione sniffed. "I've only got one friend."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"I hear what they all call me."

"Who cares about them? They're just mad because we're brilliant." When Hermione didn't answer Evie tried something else. "We're going to miss class."

"I don't want to see him."

Evie almost ran a hand through her hair but stopped. "Fine, I'll go, but only because if we both miss the lesson you'll be furious once you realize that Ron's not worth any of this."

"Take notes for me."

"Why else do you think I'm going to history of Magic?"

"It's a good class."

"Then you go." Hermione didn't respond, or laugh like Evie had hoped. Sighing, Evie gave up. "Fine, I'll be back later."

She spent the rest of their lessons taking overly meticulous notes and telling all their Professors that Hermione was ill. When Lavender and Parvati asked if she was contagious, Evie told them the truth, saying that Ron was being a terrible git and had made Hermione cry. Even though the two girls had little in common with Hermione or her, they still helped Evie send glares his way the rest of the day.

At dinner, Evie brought Hermione the work she'd missed and told her what happened in class, including how she, Lavender and Parvati had glared at Ron for her.

"Did he look guilty?"

"He looked positively sick with guilt. I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't eat tonight."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. Every time we glared at him he turned bright red, all the way to his ears."

A small giggle drifted out from Hermione's stall and Evie smiled. A click echoed off the walls of the lavatory, and Evie stood to greet her friend. Hermione's eyes were a bit red, but she looked a lot happier than she had been.

"Better?"

"Much." Hermione wiped the last hint of tears from her eyes and smiled.

"Good, I think we can still make the feast." Evie turned to lead them out of the loo. They made it to just outside the door before she came to a dead stop and Hermione nearly crashed into her.

"Evie, what-"

"Go back," Evie whispered quickly, trying to back up.

"What? Why?"

"There's a troll at the end of the hallway and it's coming towards us."

"What?"

"Shh!" Evie pushed against Hermione again. "There's a troll at the end of the hall and you want to yell?"

"That's not funny."

"I'm not joking."

Hermione finally peaked around her friend to see the troll, as tall as the ceiling, slowly ambling in their direction. She quickly turned and went back through the door they'd just come out. Evie followed right behind her.

"What do we do?" Hermione began to panic.

"Don't panic," Evie answered calmly. "Trolls are stupid, remember? All we have to do is wait for it to pass. Then, we'll make our way back to our common room and wait for the professors to handle it."

"What if they don't know it's here?"

"Hermione." Evie looked over her friend for a moment. "It's a full grown mountain troll. The castle may be big, but it's not big enough for a full grown mountain troll to go unnoticed walking about. Even if they don't know it's here, they will very soon. We just need it to pass by us and then we can-"

The sound of the door opening made her stop short. She looked up just in time to see the troll enter the bathroom, holding a rather large club. It was large and fat, with dirty slate skin and a smell of sweaty socks that preceded him into a room. Evie could only assume it was a he, as she'd never thought to find out how to tell a male troll form a female. It grunted with each step its great horned flat feet took.

"Get in the stall, Hermione." Evie spoke as softly as she could.

The other girl seemed to be petrified. She stood, staring open mouthed at the troll as he slowly advanced on them.

"Move!" Harry shouted causing Evie to finally noticed that he and Ron were right behind the troll.

Evie grabbed Hermione and pulled her into a stall. As she closed the door she saw the troll lift its club for a large swing. She dropped to the floor, pulling Hermione with her. The sound of cracking wood and the feeling of dust and wood chips raining down on them seemed to shake Hermione out of her shock.

"Confuse it!" Harry yelled at Ron desperately as the troll lifted his club again to bring it down right on the stall the girls had entered.

The girls began crawling forward, trying to get out of the way of the club as well as out from under the debris. They had just moved clear as the club came down. Evie could feel it just miss her toes.

Harry grabbed a piece of metal and began banging it against the wall. The troll lumbered around confused and looked for the source of the new noise. His eyes fell on Harry and he started towards him.

Then Ron yelled, "Oy, pea-brain!" and threw another piece of metal at it.

The troll didn't actually notice the metal hitting his shoulder, but he did hear the yelling and turned to find the source it this second new noise. He found Ron and began heading for him just as Hermione and Evie scuttled across the floor to the sinks.

The troll noticed the movement and, just as they separated under the sinks, he slammed his club down on the empty space between them.

"I said over here!" Ron yelled again.

The troll was beginning to get very angry at all the noise and roared. Then he charged towards Ron, who was trapped. Harry seemed to notice too, as he took a great running leap and landed with his arms around the troll's neck. It wouldn't have noticed if not for the fact that Harry's wand, which had presumably still been in his hand when he leapt, had gotten lodged into the it's nose. It howled in pain as it twisted and flailed it's club around, and poor Harry was stuck holding on for dear life. Ron pulled out his wand looking like he was making it up as he went along.

Then, with absolute precision, he called out, "Wingardium Leviosa!" followed by a perfect swish and flick. The troll's club left his hand, rose high into the air, turned once, and then dropped with a crack onto the it's head.

The troll took a swaying step forward, then another, and finally, as it tried to take a third, it's legs gave out beneath him and he fell to the floor. The whole room trembled as he landed.

Hermione and Evie slowly got up from under the sinks. As Harry, too, got up Evie could tell he was shaking and sweaty. Ron was frozen in shock, staring at what he'd just done with his wand still raised.

"Is it…dead?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence.

"Am I a terrible person if I say I hope so?" Evie asked.

"I think it's just been knocked out," Harry said as he bent down and removed his wand from the troll's nose. "Urgh, troll bogies," he groaned and wiped it off on his robes.

Hurried footsteps sounded from outside the door and moved towards them, catching their attention. While they had been fighting for their lives they had been making enough racket to wake the whole castle, so it shouldn't have come as a shock when Professor McGonagall, followed closely by Snape and Quirrell burst into the loo.  
Professor McGonagall was livid; she looked at the troll then between the four students and rested her eyes on Harry and Ron.

"Explain," she snapped.

Harry and Ron immediately began speaking over each other, trying to find an explanation that got them into the least amount of trouble. As they did, Evie glanced over at Hermione, giving her friend a meaningful look. Hermione nodded imperceptibly.

"It's our fault professor," Hermione cut in.

"Miss Granger? Miss Diggory?"

"They were looking for us," Evie began.

"We went looking for the troll because we…"

"…we thought we could deal with it on our own."

"We'd read about them, so we thought we knew what we were doing."

"If they hadn't found us, we'd be dead."

"Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club."

"They couldn't fetch anyone because it was about to finish us off when they arrived," Evie finished.

"Well…in that case, five points will be taken from each of you for your foolishness," McGonagall stated staring down Hermione and Evie as they hung their heads. "I am very disappointed with both of you. I suggest you head back to Gryffindor tower, assuming you aren't hurt."

Hermione and Evie quickly left the loo and rushed back to Gryffindor tower, but once they got there they figured something would need to be said to Harry and Ron. Without them, they may have very well been dead.

"What should we say?" Evie asked.

"What do you say to someone who saves you from a full grown mountain troll?"

"I don't know I've never been in this situation before." Evie and Hermione chuckled awkwardly.

When Harry and Ron entered the portrait Evie and Hermione were right there waiting for them. They all stood there awkwardly, not looking at each other. It took moments for someone to break the silence, but finally Evie couldn't stand it anymore.

"So…" she started, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "We just wanted to say thanks for, well, saving us from the troll."

"Yeah, you didn't have to come for us," Hermione added.

"It's our fault you were in that situation to begin with," Harry said.

"My fault." Ron blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks for taking the blame for us."

"Yeah, well, you know," Evie wasn't sure where she had planned to go so she just trailed off, turning from the boys once more.

"Seemed like the least we could do, considering," Hermione finished almost as though it had been planned.

A quiet chuckle drifted through the group as they all recognized the joke. All too quickly to ended and they were silent again. Without any real plan, they all dispersed to get food.

That was how everything changed. That was how those two pairs became a quartet. Later, Evie would look back and smile, as she thought that life threatening events were always good for friendships. Or, they were good for her friendships, at least.


	7. Christmas and Confrontations

"Dad!" Evie pushed her cart quickly towards Amos, who was standing close to the passage to King's Cross.

Winter break had finally caught up with the newly formed quartet. While Harry and Ron were spending Christmas at Hogwarts, Evie and Hermione had gone home.

Despite the separation, both pairs shared a mission. Hagrid had accidentally told them about a man called Nicolas Flamel, whose name sent an annoying itch of faint recognition through Evie's brain every time she heard it. She was going to find out why.

"My darling." Amos answered opening his arms for her.

Evie rushed into them as soon as she had gotten her cart close enough to safely abandon it.

"How was the ride?" Amos asked, letting go of Evie to hug Cedric and smile warmly at Hermione.

"It was fine." Cedric accepted his father's hug before moving back to his cart.

"Good, good. Hermione I ran into your parents; they're right on the other side of the passage waiting for you." Amos turned to lead the small group into King's Cross.

Sure enough as soon as they passed through the barrier they saw Mr. and Mrs. Granger waiting patiently.

"Mum. Dad." Hermione rushed to hug her parents. "I've got so much to tell you!" She began to open her mouth and took in a gust of air.

"You can start on the way home. Let's get your things in the car." Mr. Granger stopped his daughter before she could begin telling them everything right then and there. He then took the cart from Hermione and began pushing it towards the exit.

"Hold on, Dad." Hermione turned back to Evie and hugged her. "I'll owl you all through break."

"Good, because I'm going to owl you too." Evie hugged her friend back tightly.

"Don't forget to let me know if you find anything."

"I won't, though I don't think we'll have any more luck than we've been having." They waved each other off once more before separating for the rest of break.

When the Diggorys got home Cedric and Evie put their clothes in the wash pile, which Amos set to work on itself immediately. Then the three of them sat down to a nice cup of tea so Evie and Cedric could tell their father all about school.

Cedric spent most of his time talking about the Hufflepuff team, who they had picked up and who was doing the best. They had already played and defeated Ravenclaw and Cedric was excited to play Gryffindor next.

"Apparently Evie might not be cheering for me this game. She's made a friend who's on the team."

"Who's this friend?" Amos raised an eyebrow. "Is it that boy, Ned or Neven who you wrote about?"

"No, dad, it's not Neville. He's not very coordinated on a broom. Also he's a bit scared of most things. "

"It's Harry Potter, Dad. D'you know he's the only first year to ever be allowed to play for their house's Quidditch team?" Cedric looked wide-eyed at Amos and the man was suddenly reminded of a much younger version of his son causing him worry for a different reason. "He's also gotten Evie in a bit of trouble." Cedric's face immediately changed from awe to guarded.

"That wasn't his fault." Evie winced as she remembered the aftermath of the troll incident.

* * *

 _Cedric was livid, though how he knew about the troll incident was beyond Evie. She certainly hadn't had any plans to tell him._

" _What were you thinking?" He cut her off before she could even enter the Great Hall the next morning. "You decided to take on a mountain troll?"_

" _It's not what you think." Evie tossed her hands up desperately._

" _So you didn't fight the troll that was roaming the castle last night?" Cedric narrowed his eyes. His mouth set in a thin, disapproving line. He wasn't yelling, but that's what made it so much worse. She was furious with her, to be sure, but his tone was so low and disappointed, it cut right through Evie._

" _Well…" The girl grimaced._

" _I thought you were smarter than that." He suddenly rounded on Hermione who Evie noticed only then was still standing right beside her, along with Harry and Ron. "Both of you should be smarter than that."_

 _Hermione hung her head in shame as well._

" _It was our fault."_

 _Cedric, Evie and Hermione turned to look at Harry._

 _Cedric studied him and Ron for a moment. "Your fault?"_

 _Evie watched his face change from anger to protective accusation._

" _Yeah, see, I-"_

" _We-"_

" _We upset Hermione and so she was in the bathroom." Ron began blushing again._

" _Evie was in the bathroom trying to cheer her up when the troll happened into their hallway."_

" _They were about to leave the bathroom when they noticed the troll heading towards them and went back in to hide."_

" _We had been heading to the bathroom to warn them, when we saw it happen." Harry paused to rub the back of his neck. "I guess you know what happened after that."_

 _Cedric stared the two boys down and for the first time Evie realized how strong his jaw had become. Somehow she had continued to picture him as her soft-faced and gentle brother even after he'd lost the baby fat in his cheeks, but in that moment she finally saw what he had actually become. He was imposing, defined; his jaw was like stone, and his height caused even Ron to fall into his shadow._

 _Evie found herself reaching up to touch her brother's shoulder gently. "They saved us." She wasn't sure why she felt the need to defuse him; she just knew she really ought to._

" _You wouldn't have needed saving if not for them." He didn't take his eyes off the boys, who had begun to sweat._

" _Nobody could've predicted a troll would manage to get into the castle."_

 _Cedric sighed and finally looked at his sister. He looked her over completely that time. "Are you alright?" He glanced between Evie and Hermione._

 _Both girls nodded, but Cedric narrowed his eyes._

" _We promise we're alright." Evie stared, unwavering, into her brother's eyes._

 _Cedric nodded. "Just be careful from now on."_

 _Evie and Hermione nodded again._

 _He turned to glare at Harry and Ron. "Keep them safe. No more trolls, and no more danger."_

 _Harry and Ron nodded, wearing matching masks of fear._

* * *

"What's wrong Dad?" Cedric's calm and curious voice pulled Evie back to the present.

Turning to her father, the brunette noticed he looked uncomfortable or frightened. He seemed to be just coming out of his own thought process.

"Dad?" Evie frowned and tilted her head.

"I'm alright. Just got lost in thought." Amos waved away his children's worry, but Evie noticed his eyes darting to the area on her chest where her locket rested. "Harry Potter, you say? And he plays for Gryffindor? He must be very talented to make the team in his first year."

"He caught the Snitch in his mouth his very first game." Cedric started up again.

It almost amused Evie how conflicted her brother's feelings about her new friend were. On the one hand, he had certainly not forgiven him or Ron for the troll situation. On the other hand, he couldn't seem to help admiring the boy's Seeker skills. He was clearly itching to go up against him and put his own skills to the test. Evie could live with that, so long as it eventually led Cedric to forgiving, or forgetting how they became friends in the first place.

The conversation turned back to Quidditch and Evie was quite happy to leave it there. She was not looking forward to her father finally finding out that she'd survived a troll attack just one month ago. She was so worried about him not finding out what she'd been up to she forgot to ask him about Nicolas Flamel.

Two days into break Evie woke to Cedric tickling her nose.

"Stop." She pulled the blankets over her head.

"Wake up."

"No."

"Come on, Evie."

"Why?"

"It's been snowing all night; you've got to see it."

"But it's cold out there."

"Don't you want to build a snow wizard? Or maybe have a snowball fight? Or maybe read around the fire with some cocoa?"

"Can we not do all three?" Evie poked her head out of the blankets just enough for him to see her eyes.

"We can if you get up."

They stared at each other for a minute more before Evie finally broke.

"Oh, alright, I'm up." She tossed the blankets off of her body and immediately regretted the action. "Bloody hell, it's freezing!" She reached for the quilt again.

"Then you'd better hurry and get dressed hadn't you?" Cedric grabbed the blankets and balled them up, holding them out of her reach. "I'll meet you downstairs in 10 minutes." Then he turned around and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Evie quickly bathed and dressed warmly, expecting to be in the snow for a while. She braided her hair and grabbed her hat and gloves. Finally, she rushed out of the room and down the stairs where Cedric sat at the kitchen table.

"Right on time, as always." He stood and offered Evie her cloak. He grabbed his broom and one of their dad's old pointed hats before they left the cottage.

Outside Evie noticed how early it actually was. The sun had yet to rise and the sky was still a deep and endless blue. The stars had gone to bed and the inky blue of night was consistently getting lighter, turning bruise purple with the promise of sunlight.

"Why are we up so early?"

"I learned something I want to try and I didn't want to risk any muggles seeing me."

"But we aren't allowed to do magic outside of school."

"No, _you_ aren't allowed to do magic outside of school. I am now."

"That's not fair."

"Yes it is. You're a first year and no first year is allowed to do magic outside of school."

"But I've been reading ahead, and I learned the paint charm you saw during the Quidditch game –"

"That _was_ really impressive."

"Thank you." Evie beamed for a moment before returning to her indignant rant. "I've also learned this cool spell from Hermione. It produces a small blue flame you can keep in a jar."

"Yeah, I know that one." Cedric scouted the area they were in before he kept moving.

"Plus I've read up on plenty others. I know lots of spells."

"Alright, but you still don't have a complete handle on your magic. No first year is allowed to do magic outside of school and that's what makes it fair." He eyed her pointedly.

Sometimes Evie didn't like that Cedric was so just and fair. She wished she could be allowed do magic outside of school because she wasn't like every first year, and sometimes she wished he would just agreed with her about how unfair it was that she didn't get special treatment for being better than other people. Only sometimes, because other times she remembered that she loved her brother for exactly who he was.

"Alright, I understand. Why do you always have to be right?"

"I don't have to be, I just enjoy it." He surveyed the area again. "Here's a good spot." They stopped walking and Evie realized they were standing almost exactly in the middle of the field, where the trees were thick and there was no risk that the muggles in town would see them.

"What are we doing?"

"Just watch." Cedric pulled out his wand and lifted it. He made a circular motion then raised his wand high saying words Evie had not heard before, and hadn't had the mind to listen very well to as she was awestruck by what the spell was doing.

The snow around them was rising and coming together. It packed itself tightly and continued to form until it made a medium sized igloo. A hole in the front allowed them to crawl inside and though it was not tall enough for them to stand, it was tall enough for them to sit comfortably on the floor which was no longer covered in snow but the damp grass that had been sleeping underneath it.

"Wow." Evie glanced around the inside of the igloo, touching the walls softly. She had spent her whole life in a magical community and yet magic never ceased to amaze her. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen." She turned to look at her brother.

"I didn't know if it would work. This is the first time I tried it." Cedric touched the walls also, as surprised as she was that it was sound and standing.

"Well, I have to admit, you finally know something I don't."

"I always know things you don't; I just like to let you think you're smarter than me."

"Bollocks. You wouldn't know anything if you didn't have me."

"Oh, I think I'd do just fine. You, on the other hand, would be completely gone if I didn't keep you on track."

"Oh, shut up." Evie smacked him in the arm lightly.

"Ow!" Cedric grabbed the arm she hit and cradled it as if it were fatally wounded. He looked at her as if she'd just betrayed him.

Evie just stuck her tongue out at him.

He responded by sticking his tongue right back at her.

"You're such a child." Evie rolled her eyes, laughing.

"You started it!" Cedric pointed an accusing finger at her.

"But you didn't have to do it back." Evie raised a challenging eyebrow.

There was a moment of silence.

"Touché." Cedric bowed his head towards her.

"Ha! I win, so say it."

"Evie, you are smarter than me and I'd be lost without you." Cedric dropped his face so it was expressionless.

"Oh, well if you aren't going to put your heart into it I don't want the confession." Evie sniffed and turned away, but quickly broke down and smiled. "So, can it stay?" She turned to touch the walls again.

"Yeah, it should last the rest of winter." Cedric patted the walls. "Come on, I promised you snow wizards." He crawled out of the igloo and she followed.

Since neither of them knew the spell their father used to make snow wizards they had to make theirs by hand. They rolled snowball after snowball placing them on top of each other, then putting the old hat on his head. They found no twigs on the ground after a ten minute search, so Cedric grabbed his broom.

"That's why I brought this." He held it up to her before he mounted it, flew over to the trees nearest to them, grabbed several twigs, and flew back. By the time he landed the sun was coming up over the horizon and the deep blue of the sky had gone from a Byzantium purple to magenta, and continued to flow into the brilliant shades of pink, red, and orange of a sunrise.

They gave their snow wizard hands and a wand, then Cedric handed Evie some small pebbles which she used to give him a face. Taking a step back they surveyed their handiwork.

"He looks happy, I like him." Evie tilted her head, then righted it and nodded.

"Me too," Cedric said while smiling.

"He sort of looks like he lives there." Evie pointed to the igloo and laughed.

"Yeah, he does." Cedric nodded, and then looked at the sky. "We should head home. The sun's coming up and Dad will be wondering where we are soon."

"Also, I'm hungry." Evie's stomach rumbled in agreement.

"Let's go." Cedric shook his head, a smile planted on his face.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Evie glanced back at their creations.

"Yeah, they'll be fine."

When they walked in the door they saw their dad already moving about the kitchen.

"Where have you two been?"

"We built a snow wizard! Dad, did you see how much it snowed last night?" Evie bounced into the kitchen which smelled heavily of bacon and eggs. The change in temperature made her cheeks tingle.

"Did it snow?" Amos turned to his children with a smile as they entered. "Put those up properly." He pointed at the cloaks both had just tossed over the backs of their chairs and the two pairs of gloves and two scarves on top of the table. "And take your boots off, you're tracking water everywhere."

"Yes, Dad." They said in unison before grabbing their things and heading for the living room where the cloak hooks sat nailed to the wall by the front door. They pulled off their boots as well and Set them by the fire Amos started while they were out.

Back in the kitchen breakfast was just finishing up and Amos was pulling down three plates and silverware for them. He handed out plates then smile at his two children. "So, the Ministry announced they are not doing a Christmas Gala this year." Evie and Cedric exchanged covert happy glances. "They're doing a New Years Gala instead!"

"Are we going to have to go?" Evie's shoulders sagged as she glanced at her dad over her forkful of eggs.

"What do you mean _have to_? I thought you guys liked the Ministry Galas." Their father's face fell. He glanced from one child to the next sadly.

"Well, I spend all evening surrounded by adults, I'm not allowed to explore any of the interesting areas, and for conversation I get Malfoy, Zabini and Parkinson."

"Well, I suppose we don't have to go…" Amos frowned into his eggs.

"Really? Because that-"

"We'd love to go, Dad. Evie was just joking." Cedric shot Evie a pointed look as she glared back at him, clutching the side his elbow had collided with.

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it."

After that conversation turned from the topic and they talked more about school and how Amos had been getting on without them.

Amos left for work with a smile on his face that morning. Cedric and Evie cleaned the dishes then went into the living room and sat in front of the fire. Cedric flipped through Quidditch magazines while Evie read one of her favorite books.

The days passed quickly and, before Evie knew it Christmas Eve had arrived. She was excited. Every Christmas Eve she, Cedric, and their dad went into the small town of Ottery St. Catchpole and listened to the carolers.

After the carolers, Amos would always magic some nut crackers and little ballerinas to dance around the room and then he'd tell Cedric and Evie a story, using the nut crackers and ballerinas. Afterwards, Cedric and Evie went off to bed early while Amos laid out presents. Once he went to bed Cedric and Evie would sneak back downstairs and lay out the presents they'd bought for him.

Christmas morning was the one morning a year Evie didn't mind waking up early. She jumped out of bed, threw her bathrobe on and rushed out of her room. She burst into Cedric's room first, shaking him awake and smiling as she announced the day. Then she knocked excitedly on her father's door. When he answered she once again announced the day and then continued to fly down the stairs where she bounced around the kitchen making tea and sat excitedly in her seat as she waited for the other two to make their way much more slowly to the kitchen.

They had the same breakfast every Christmas. Cinnamon pancakes, bangers and eggs. After breakfast they would open presents and Amos would spend most of the rest of the day cooking dinner while Evie and Cedric stayed out of the way, usually playing, fiddling with, or reading their presents. Post would arrive just after breakfast with many Christmas greetings from distant relatives or people who worked with Amos at the Ministry.

When the post arrived that year, however, Evie was surprised and excited to find that Hermione had sent her a gift. She was also twice as happy that she had thought to get Hermione something as well. She had also sent something for Harry and Ron; however, she was not surprised to find they had not sent her much more than letters wishing a happy Christmas.

Thinking about remembering reminded her that she had not asked her father if he knew Nicolas Flamel. She would do it after dinner, in the quiet space before bed when they all just sat in front of the fire and enjoyed each other's company while drinking cinnamon and apple tea.

In the space between opened presents and after dinner Evie immersed herself in the book she'd received from Hermione, _A Study in Scarlet_. Snippets of conversation passed periodically between her and Cedric, who sat polishing his broom with his new kit, but for the most part they were quiet and content.

Dinner passed with laughter and good food and by the end they were all stuffed and happy. Amos set the dishes to washing and they all retired to the living room. Sitting and listening to the light crackling of the fire, Evie figured there was no better time to ask her question. "Dad?"

"Hmm?" Amos didn't look up from the Prophet which he had neglected to read all day.

"Do you know anything about a man called Nicolas Flamel?" She kept her head down and her tone light.

Both Amos and Cedric looked up at her.

"Why do you ask?" Amos was now completely invested in the conversation.

"Well, I know I've heard the name before and I just can't think of where." She looked up pretending to be bothered.

"You've got about a hundred Dumbledore Chocolate Frog cards. I can't believe you forgot they worked together on some Alchemy something or other." Cedric smirked at her.

"Oh, of course! How could I have forgotten that? Cedric you're a genius," she gasped.

"That's what I kept telling you."

""Don't let it go to your head," Evie chastised before jumping up from her lounge chair and rushing out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Amos called after her.

"To find my Chocolate Frog cards," she answered from halfway up the stairs. In reality Evie rushed up the stairs pulled out some parchment and a quill and penned a letter to Hermione.

 _Dear Hermione,_

 _How are you enjoying your holiday? Mine has been wonderful. I am writing for two reasons._

 _The first is I've almost completed the book you sent and I must say the story of this Sherlock Holmes is brilliant. I would love to read more. Also, thank you. I hope you like the music. The Weird Sisters are very popular and they've got a great sound, at least I think so. I thought you might like them too._

 _The second is most important. I've figured out where I know the name Nicolas Flamel from. He's on the Chocolate Frog card for Professor Dumbledore. They worked together on Mr. Flamel's Alchemy project, though the card doesn't go into any more detail. That's where we need to be looking Hermione, Alchemy books. I just thought I'd tell you before I forgot again. Anyway, I hope the rest of your holiday is wonderful and I look forward to hearing from you._

 _Your friend,_

 _Evie_

She sent the letter off in the morning and received a reply by the end of the day. Hermione said she would be happy to show Evie more Sherlock books and she was very excited to hear the music. She even offered to show Evie muggle music. At the end of her letter Hermione said she had a book she'd checked out of the library ages ago which would be helpful and she promised to let Evie know as soon as she found anything.

The days continued to pass and before she knew it, it was New Years Eve. Evie was sprawled across Cedric's bed looking absolutely miserable with her head hanging over the edge. "Why do we have to go?"

"Dad would like us there. If for no other reason, go for him."

"I know, you're right," Evie sighed. "Ugh, fine."

"Now, hurry and get dressed," Cedric shooed her from his bed and then his room so he could dress as well.

Evie rushed into her room and searched her closet for something appropriate to wear. She was not a girl who liked dresses much so she owned very few. She searched until she found in the back of her closet a dress her dad had bought her the previous year in anticipation for the Ministry Christmas Gala which had been cancelled due to an unfortunate outbreak of dragon pox. Once she had finished dressing she went to Cedric for help.

"I can't figure out what to do with my hair," she frowned when he opened the door.

Cedric was dressed smartly in black dress robes and a bowtie. His hair was parted on the left and slicked back and his shoes were nice, polished and black. He looked over her hair with a slight smile. "What on earth do you expect I can do with it?"

"Fix it! You've got to have learned some sort of spells." She looked at him hopefully.

"No, why would I?"

He smiled even wider as her face began to contort into a look of despair. Finally he beckoned her to turn around. He began pulling most of her hair up into a high ponytail. He tapped her arm for the elastic on her wrist and then twisted her hair into a messy bun leaving her mostly grown in fringe free as well as a few unruly strands that popped out at the nape of her neck.

"Alright, turn around. Huh, not bad. There you go."

He shoved her forward as if to encourage her to go look at it in the mirror, which she did. It was always amazing what other people managed to do with her hair. The bun looked really nice. She nodded in appreciation.

"Are you two ready?" Amos called from downstairs.

"Coming!" They answered in unison before descending the steps one right after the other.

"You both look very nice," Amos smiled proudly. "Alright, we'll floo in yeah? Evie, you first."

Evie hopped into the fireplace and called out her destination. She twirled into the Ministry and stepped out of one of the many fireplaces. There were arrows that looked like they were made out of snow guiding all the arriving guests to the ballroom.

She didn't have much time to do any looking around as she was followed almost instantly by Cedric and their father. He led them in the direction the arrows bade they go and soon they were on the lift that went all sorts of directions. Amos pressed the button to take them to the ballroom. They went up briefly then left and back. The lift made Evie a bit nauseous, but she breathed deep and got through it.

Inside the ballroom the floor was made to look like ice, and the ceiling to look as though it was snowing. There were many ice sculptures that moved all around the room. There was also a section where the children of the Ministry employees and esteemed guests could ice skate and play in self-sustaining snow. There were twinkling lights all over and, even if she wasn't happy to be there, Evie had to admit the place looked beautiful.

Almost immediately Amos was called away. Evie turned to Cedric and sighed.

"Come on, I see some mates over there," Cedric smiled pulling her along. They ended up in the children's area.

"Hannah!" Evie was pleasantly surprised to see someone she actually knew.

Hannah Abbot was the girl she and Hermione had rode across the lake with on their first night at Hogwarts. Evie only got to see her in Herbology since her sorting into Hufflepuff.

"Hello, Evie. How are you?"

"Alright, I suppose. I'm not really excited to be here," Evie shrugged.

"Nobody's happy about that, Diggory."

"Oh, good, and here I was thinking you might not show up to ruin my New Years, Malfoy." Evie turned to face the platinum blonde bane of her existence.

"Well, I don't like to disappoint," he smirked.

"It must really hurt to know how your parents feel about you then."

"Last I checked the only disappointment around here was you."

"What're you even doing over here?"

"Blaise and I just thought it might be nice to grace our lessers with our presence."

"Zabini," Evie greeted tightly.

"Diggory," Zabini nodded to her. He never did bother to insult her. He simply despised her in dignified silence.

"Malfoy, I find myself rather tired of you. Why don't you run back to your mummy before you get in over your head? You see, Hannah and I were just in the middle of an intelligent and amiable conversation."

Evie timed this quip perfectly, watching Mrs. Malfoy head straight towards them.

"Diggory, you wouldn't know the meaning of intelligent if it hit you in the face."

"Draco Malfoy!" Mrs. Malfoy had come up just in time. She began whispering so quickly and angrily she sounded like she was just hissing. Evie could only make out certain words, like 'taught' and 'better' and 'appearances'.

Satisfied, Evie started to turn back to Hannah when something happened to make her regret getting his mother involved.

"Now, redeem yourself by asking the young lady to dance."

Evie froze in horror. She knew he would since his mother had ordered it. She felt a tap on her shoulder and weighed the option of pretending she didn't. She couldn't see that getting her out of the situation, however, and turned slowly to meet his steel eyes.

"I must apologize for my rude behavior." Malfoy looked as though every word caused him physical pain. "Would you allow me the chance to make it up with a dance?" He offered his hand and bowed his head.

Evie thought of saying no, but his mother was still standing there watching and she didn't want to incur her wrath any more than Malfoy did. Not to mention it might cause backlash on her father. She really wished she could've stayed home.

"That sounds lovely." She gave a tightlipped smile and accepted his hand. As he led her to the dance floor she turned back, sending Hannah a 'help me' look. Hannah just shrugged back, her face contorted as though she were the one about to dance with Malfoy.

"You did this on purpose," he snapped as soon as he had twirled her, rather unexpectedly, to face him.

"You mean timed your mother coming perfectly so she'd hear you insult me? Of course I did, and you would've done the same to me. I didn't expect it to result in us having to dance together. I was just hoping to hear you apologize." She took his hand when he offered it and placed her other hand on his shoulder. "This is so embarrassing."

"Not really. I've danced with plenty of people I can't stand."

"Well I don't make a habit of it," Evie snapped, glaring at her dance partner. He stared right back. She would not be made to back down, just because his gaze was cold and empty. "I don't make a habit of dancing at all, actually."

"Well, if you'll just let me lead, you won't look like a fool."

"Oh, you'd know all about looking like a fool wouldn't you, Malfoy?" All the same she let him lead after that.

"Let's just shut up and get through the song."

"Fine by me," she said, despite that fact that she was painfully aware of the heat from his hand on the small of her back.

They spent the entire rest of the song silent, looking anywhere except at each other.

Draco led flawlessly even though he refused to glance at his unwilling partner, and the song lasted longer than either of them would've liked. As soon as it ended they jumped apart.

"Thank you for the dance." Malfoy bowed and, though Evie knew he was only doing so in case his mother was watching, she curtsied in response before rushing away from him to find Cedric or Hannah.

"You didn't save me," she snapped, reaching her brother first. "You saw me out there with him and you just left me."

"How was I supposed to know you needed saving?" Cedric shrugged off her anger as though he were bored.

"I was dancing with Malfoy. That didn't seem surprising to you?"

"It would've, if I hadn't heard what happened to lead up to it."

"You…saw that?"

"I did. So, tell me why I would save you from dealing with the consequences of your actions?"

"I'm your sister." Evie looked down at her feet, frowning.

"And?"

"And…" Her eyes shot back up to glare at him once again. "And, you're supposed to look out for me. You're supposed to save me when I need saving."

"It was one dance, Evie." Cedric crossed his arms and smirked down at her.

"You're loving this, aren't you?" Evie pursed her lips, feeling the heat rising into her cheeks. "Why do you always have to be so…" She clinched her fists and furrowed her brow.

"Wise? Fair? Intelligent?"

"Annoying."

"You knew what you were doing was wrong so I didn't save you. Now, if you're done being childish you should go finish talking to Hannah. She's a very sweet girl." Cedric turned back to his friend.

Evie stood there for only a moment more, fuming and willing her brother to turn back and face her wrath. He didn't and after the moment had past she had lost most of her blind fury and just felt tired. Taking Cedric's advice, however begrudgingly she did it, Evie walked back over to Hannah and started up a new conversation.


	8. Descent into True Danger

**AN: Hey guys, just a warning this is a lot of following the book because the second moment covered was really important to both the actual story and this I'm reposting this because I missed the s in descent and I couldn't leave that up looking like that, it was driving me insane lol.  
**

* * *

The dragon and the stone had cost her forty points from her house and a detention. It had cost the same from all of her friends. The only shining light was that it cost Malfoy as well. It was a very dim light. It seemed to get dimmer the next morning when the quartet reached the entrance to the Great Hall and found Cedric waiting outside.

"Oh no," Evie groaned.

"I've just been informed by Professor McGonagall that you lot have got detention."

"Okay, I can ex—"

"This is the second time you've gotten my sister into trouble." Cedric eyed Harry and Ron.

"It wasn't their—"

"You think just because you're famous rules don't apply to you and you can drag whoever you want right down with you?"

"Cedric, I made—"

"I haven't even begun to start on you, Evelyn," Cedric said, cutting Evie off for the third time and effectively silencing her. "Unless you're saving the world, Potter, I don't want you dragging my sister into any more of your little adventures. Understood?"

Harry nodded, and then he, Ron and Hermione hurried into the Great Hall. Evie watched them go, her own anger rising.

"You don't get to make decisions for me," she snapped, turning to glare at her brother.

"What were you thinking?"

"Those are my best friends! You don't get to talk to them like that."

"Those boys are a bad influence on you."

"You're not my father!" Several heads turned. "You don't have the right to tell me who I can or cannot spend my time with. You don't even know Harry and Ron. You haven't taken two seconds to actually speak with them."

"You were almost mauled by a troll and just earned your first detention. Both those situations have one thing in common, them." Cedric pointed towards the Great Hall. "It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together, and it doesn't take a genius to know when someone's trouble."

"Harry and Ron aren't the problem."

"Then who is?" He waited, but Evie said nothing. "Exactly."

"Contrary to what you might think, I'm not stupid. I know when someone isn't good. I know what the right thing is and I am trying to do it." She frowned, her anger rapidly draining. "Why do you always think I need you to keep me good? Am I so horrible that I can't possibly make good choices on my own?"

"Breaking rules counts as making good choices?"

"It does when it's for the right reason."

"Alright, then prove it. What is this noble cause you broke the rules for?"

"I—I can't tell you." Evie looked down.

Cedric stared her down. "Right, well I hope you don't keep down this path. You were going to be the first house to beat Slytherin in seven years. Now look where you've gotten your housemates. I hope your little escapade was worth doing that to them. Or did you even think about your fellow Gryffindors?"

Evie didn't answer. She just stood there with her head down and her lip between her teeth. She hadn't thought how upset the rest of her house would be when they came down to breakfast that morning and found they were suddenly dead last.

Cedric sighed after a moment. "I just – I guess I just expected more from you."

By the time she looked up he had walked away.

He hadn't flat out said he was disappointed, but she felt it. It hurt worse than getting detention, or watching Malfoy gloat, or realizing that they had put Gryffindor dead last.

* * *

"I'm not going in there," Malfoy said and Evie noted a hint of fear in his voice.

It was just past eleven in the evening on the week before exams. Filch had just passed them off to Hagrid and in the same breath informed them that detention would be served in the Forbidden Forest.

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts. Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay for it," Hagrid said fiercely.

"But this is servant stuff. I thought we'd be copying lines or something. If my father knew I was doing this he'd –"

"Tell yeh that's how it is at Hogwarts," growled Hagrid. "What good is copyin' lines ter anyone? If yeh think yer father would rather you were expelled, then go off back ter the castle an' start packin'. "

Malfoy just glared at Hagrid for a moment before dropping his gaze.

"Right then," said Hagrid. "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' wan' no one takin' risks. Follow me."

He led them to the edge of the forest. The trees were huge, dark and dense. They loomed far above even Hagrid's head, blocking out the moonlight with their thick and mostly bare branches. Hagrid held up his lamp and pointed to a narrow path that disappeared into the trees.

"Look there." He pointed. "See that stuff shinin' on the ground? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us?" Malfoy asked.

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right now we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions. Now, let's see, Hermione, you an' Ron will come with me. Harry, Draco, an' Evie you'll go together."

"Fine, but I want Fang," Malfoy snapped quickly.

"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a ruddy coward," Hagrid said.

Malfoy looked down at Fang disappointedly. Fang looked at Malfoy, and then bowed his head.

"Now, if anyone finds the unicorn send up a green spark, an' if yeh get in trouble send up a red spark an' we'll all come runnin' to yeh. Be careful." Then he, Ron and Hermione disappeared down the one side of the path.

Evie sighed before turning in the opposite direction and starting off. Harry followed closely behind her and Malfoy and Fang brought up the rear.

"This is ridiculous—"

"Oh, do shut up, Malfoy." Evie rolled her eyes.

"Why should I? They sent us all out here and we could die! When my father –"

"Malfoy, by the time your father hears about this, you'll have already done it and he won't be able to do anything to change that. What's the point?" Evie groaned. She was already bothered that she was stuck him but his incessant whining was making the situation ten times worse.

She suddenly stopped. They had rounded a particularly large tree, stumbling into a small clearing and upon the fallen unicorn. It wasn't the unicorn that made her freeze, however. It was the dark shadowy figure kneeling down in front of it. It sent a chill down her spine.

The creature lifted its head as it noticed them. It turned slowly to face the small group of frightened student. Malfoy immediately fled with Fang close behind him. Harry doubled over clutching his forehead in pain. Evie felt a sudden pain of her own; the crescent shaped birthmark on her hip began to burn. The pain, though not to the extent that Harry's, was enough to shoot through her with every step she took.

She moved in front of Harry to block the path between him and the creature. She raised her wand defensively though her arm was shaking. The creature continued to float towards them, closer and closer.

"St-stay back!" Evie yelled. She didn't know what else to do. She couldn't think of a single spell that would be strong enough to keep it from them.

"Harry, Evie!" She heard Hagrid call far in the distance. Suddenly Evie remembered. She pointed her wand to the sky and sent off two red sparks.

The creature watched her sparks go up then turned the black hole that was its facial area back to her. She could feel the hatred flowing towards her and a fresh wave of pain stabbed at her birthmark. It reached out a bone white hand to her but, just before it reached her, two things happened.

The first was that she felt Harry's clammy hand grasp hers tightly. The second was that a war cry sounded through the trees to their right. Something came galloping out and chased the creature away. Evie gasped and stumbled back, falling over Harry's still bent body and onto the forest floor. When she gathered herself again and she and Harry were on their feet, she realized what had saved them.

It was a centaur, with a young face and white-blond hair. Evie was awestruck. She'd never seen a centaur in the flesh. They tended to keep away from witches and wizards.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Evie nodded slowly. Harry was just coming back to himself but he still managed to respond. "Yes – thank you – what was that thing?"

The centaur didn't answer. Evie noticed as he got closer that he had sapphire eyes. He looked first at Evie and then at Harry. He studied Harry closely for a moment before speaking. "You're the Potter boy. I am Firenze. You should get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time – especially for you."

"But what was that thing?" Harry insisted.

"Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

Harry turned to Evie; she shook her head. "No, we only use the horn and tail hair in Potions."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," Firenze explained. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You will have only a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Evie gasped in horror.

Harry looked at Firenze baffled. "But, who would be that desperate?"

"Someone who only needs it to stay alive long enough to drink something else – something that will bring them back to full strength and power and mean they can never die. Mr. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

"The Stone," Evie whispered, shaking. Firenze looked at her as though he just remembered she was there.

"But I don't understand who –" Harry continued.

"Harry," Evie called the raven-haired boy's attention to her. "Think."

"Do you mean," Harry croaked out, turning to Firenze for confirmation. "It was Vol– "

"Harry, Evie!" Hermione called as she, Ron and Hagrid came rushing down the path into the clearing.

"We're fine," Evie answered without a thought. She wasn't even sure that she was telling the truth.

"The unicorn is dead, Hagrid," Harry added, pointing to the poor creature's body, lying only a few feet away.

"This is where I leave you," Firenze said as Hagrid rushed off to examine the unicorn. "Good luck Harry Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before. I hope this is one of those times." Then he turned and cantered back into the forest.

Evie watched him go with a knot in her stomach. She worried it might be a long time before she felt it leave.

She didn't sleep well that night. Her mind kept bringing her back to the dark forest and the bone white hand reaching out for her. In the morning her birthmark was red, which had never happened before. Evie shuddered as she wondered what it could mean.


	9. That Gryffindor Bravery

**AN: I would like to preface this with a few words. First, I'm so sorry that I'm taking so long to write. I have been really busy with RL things and lacking inspiration. Second, this chapter is not only a bit long, it's also a bit close to the books because I got asked a few time what Evie's role would be in all the adventures. I hope this adequately answers that question.**

* * *

"I keep thinking Voldemort's just going to come bursting into the room during exams and hex me into oblivion."

"He has a plan, Harry. And it seems complex enough that it probably won't involve him bursting in mid exam and hexing you into oblivion." Evie smiled in a way she hoped was comforting.

She and Harry had spent many nights since the incident in the Forbidden Forest in the common room talking into the early hours of the morning. Neither had been able to sleep well since the encounter, but Evie hadn't been able to bring herself to tell Harry she'd felt the same pain he had.

Harry rolled his eye at the brunette. "I know, but that doesn't mean I don't still think about it."

"I know. I just thought, maybe hearing it from someone else might help." Evie shrugged. "I can't stop having the forest nightmare." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. That particular night had been prompted by their mutual inability to keep the nightmares at bay.

"I always end up back in the forest too."

"Yeah?" When Harry nodded his confirmation, Evie shook her head again. "This time it was different. He pulled me into His face. It was like this endless black abyss." Evie shivered as she remembered the skeletal hand the reached for her, it's grip so tight she bruised.

Harry's eyes widened for a moment. "I had that dream too."

"What?" The girl's eyes shot up to meet her friend's.

"Yeah. I mean, it didn't start off there, but that's where it ended."

"Everything about this just got ten times creepier."

"Maybe He's messing with our minds."

"That doesn't make any sense, Harry." Evie shook her head. "I wish Hermione was taking this more seriously. I really need a bit more brain power."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, but can you honestly say you've read as many books as her?"

"I don't think even you've read as many books as her." Harry joked. "But good luck trying to get her to focus on anything other than finals."

"That's as unlikely as Ron actually following her study schedule." Evie smiled softly.

* * *

The night after their Transfiguration exam found the two back in the common room. This time, neither had even bothered to go to sleep. The pain in Harry's forehead and Evie's hip made it harder and harder for them to think of anything other than the stone.

"Whatever's going to happen, it's going to be soon, isn't it?" Evie stared into the emerald eyes of the boy across from her.

"You feel it too?"

The girl nodded. "I'm not sure I'm ready for it, " she whispered.

"You don't have to be. I can't ask you to put yourself in danger for me." Harry looked down. "I saw you step in front of me that day in the forest. What if He had reached you? You could've been seriously hurt, and it would've been my fault."

"Oh, come off it, Harry." Evie's face hardened. "If this is about what Cedric said, forget that. I make my own choices. I choose what I do and what kind of danger I get into, not you, not him, not anybody."

"If you weren't my friend you wouldn't have even gotten detention in the first place."

"How do you know? I was curious about the trapdoor too. I might have just done what Malfoy did and followed you. Then I'd have been in detention just the same."

"But-"

"No." Evie stared the raven-haired boy down. "Get over yourself, Potter," she teased. "The world doesn't revolve around you. Not everything is your fault."

Harry smiled back at her. "Yeah, alright. Guess I should really check my ego."

"You should," Evie concurred. "Especially since that's not even what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"Have you ever worried the Sorting Hat was wrong about where he placed you?"

"Actually, I'm more worried it was right about where it wanted to place me." Evie tilted her head and waited for him to continue. Harry sighed. "It tried to convince me I belonged in Slytherin."

"I can't imagine that. I mean, you aren't exactly ambitious, are you?"

"Thanks," Harry said, deadpanned. "But it just kept pushing. The Hat told me I could be great and that Slytherin would help me get there."

"That sounds like a test, Harry. You not wanting the power and glory the Hat was offering is exactly why you aren't a Slytherin."

"I hope so." Harry smiled. "Why did you ask, though?"

"I'm scared, Harry. Scared I won't be brave enough when I need to be." Evie looked down. "I think the Hat made a mistake." It was barely a whisper, but she felt like she'd shouted it.

"How could you say that? After everything you've done…" Harry shook his head.

"It said my mum was a Gryffindor."

"So?"

"She was a Ravenclaw."

"Are you sure?"

"Dad has pictures of her from her school days. He keeps her old school scarf. She was really proud of her house. I've always known she was a Ravenclaw." Evie sighed. "If the Sorting Hat was wrong about her, maybe it was wrong about me too."

"Not possible."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do." Harry sat forward. "You were terrified when you faced down Voldemort." Evie stifled her flinch. "I felt it. I was scared too. But you stood in front of me. You raised your wand to Him to protect me. You faced down a troll for Hermione. You stood up to your brother for me and Ron. How could you ever think the Hat was wrong?" Harry laughed. "You couldn't be more Gryffindor if you were a Weasley."

That set Evie off. She pitched forward in a fit of giggles, wiping the hints of tears she'd felt earlier from her eyes. "I don't think I'd look good with red hair."

"You've already got the freckles."

"If being a Weasley is contagious, it's something I wouldn't mind catching."

Harry chuckled lightly. "Hey, me either."

* * *

Looking back on the next few days Evie would say she couldn't remember what led to the moment she was staring at Neville, his fists raised against them, in the dead of night in Gryffindor common room. Everything preceding it was hazy, and even watching Neville was weird, like it wasn't really happening.

Then Hermione whipped out her wand and it became real. Evie knew what she was going to do, even as she apologized for doing it. "Wait!"

"Petrificus totalus."

Evie lunged forward as the spell hit Neville. He stiffened, and she grabbed the only thing she could reach, his night shirt. The only problem was Neville was pudgy and heavy on a normal day. Neville's deadweight was proving impossible to keep from falling.

"What are you doing?" Ron whispered.

"Help me," she hissed.

"We don't have time for this," Harry hissed right back.

"Help me." Evie insisted. Her arms shook, her legs began to buckle, and beads of sweat broke through the skin on her forehead. "Please."

Ron sighed and ran forward. He grabbed hold of Neville's stiff body, allowing Evie to let go. The girl grabbed a pillow of the couch by the fireplace and set it around where Neville's head would land.

"Okay, set him down gently." Ron rolled his eyes but followed her instruction nonetheless. "Sorry, Neville. Let's go." She nodded when Neville was on the ground, his head propped up by a pillow.

"That was a waste of time." Ron accused.

"Why did you do that?" Hermione asked.

All four crowded under the Invisibility Cloak and began making their way towards the third floor.

Evie rolled her eyes. "Two reasons, actually. First, Neville is our friend. We can't just go around cursing our friends."

"He was in the way." Hermione stated.

" _Second_ , he could have made a lot of noise when he hit the ground. Being quick is important, but so is not getting caught. If we're caught it won't matter how fast we move, we won't be stopping anybody."

The other three were quiet for a moment. "Alright, let's move." Harry nodded after the moment of contemplation.

They shuffled as silently as they could through the castle. Evie's heart pounded the whole way, but she kept her breathing even. She was nervous. Nervous about being expelled, or hurt, or not being helpful, but she wasn't unsure. If fact, she'd never been more sure in her life that she was doing the right thing.

They spent the rest of the shuffle avoiding pretty much every obstacle they could've come across. Harry shook Peeves by pretending to be the Bloody baron, and Mrs. Norris remained oblivious to their stroll. After running into Peeves they were silent until they came to the opened door leading to the third floor corridor.

"You can turn back." Harry's voice cut through the silence. "You can take the cloak-"

"Don't be stupid." Ron cut him off.

"We're coming with you," Hermione said.

Evie didn't say anything. She steeled herself for what was coming. Harry must know she'd made her choice weeks ago. She made the choice to stay by him in the forest and since she'd already faced You-Know-Who once, it seemed stupid to run now.

Harry glanced at her and she nodded. They pushed the door open.

They were almost instantly greeted by a low growl. Fluffy was awake with a discarded harp by his feet. He couldn't see them because of where they were, which was probably the best luck they'd had yet.

Harry pulled out the flute he'd acquired from Hagrid earlier and began to play. Well, play might have been generous. He blew on the flute so a sort of monotone noise came from it, and though Evie wouldn't be applauding Harry's musical abilities any time soon, it was enough to put Fluffy to sleep.

The group made their way to the trapdoor, discarding the Invisibility Cloak behind them. The only way to the door was over Fluffy's giant leg.

"Who want's to go first?" Ron asked. "Hermione?"

"No, I don't!"

"Fine," Ron grumbled, tightening his jaw. He stepped over the leg and opened the door in the floor.

"Well?" Evie asked her word tumbled together with Hermione's question.

"What can you see?"

"Nothing, it's just black. And we're going to have to jump. There's no ladder or anything."

Harry trilled a little higher on the flute to get everyone's attention. He pointed from himself to the hole in the floor and jerked his head in what seemed to be a jumping motion.

"You wanna go first?" Ron asked and Harry nodded. "You sure?"

Harry nodded again, but as he tried to cross over to the other side of the leg he tripped, lost hold of the flute and the four watched it fly across the floor and down the trapdoor. They stood frozen and horrified for a second before the giant dog began to stir.

"What do we do?" Hermione began to panic.

"I don't know," Harry glanced at the harp, but it was too close to Fluffy to risk. Especially as the three-headed monster's eyes began to open.

"When I find myself in times of trouble," Evie whisper sang the first song that popped into her head.

The heads of her three companions turned to her as though she'd gone crazy.

"What are you doing?" Ron hissed.

"Singing." Evie snapped. "Mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom"

"Why?" Harry shook his head.

"I couldn't think of anything else." Evie rushed out. "Let it be."

Fluffy had paused mid stir, as unsure as the rest of the group about what was happening. His eyes remained lidded in that drooping, half asleep sort of way.

"And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me," Evie kept going, her voice slowly rising above a whisper, but still cracking and wavering.

Fluffy seemed to decide this was enough to be considered music and slowly drifted back towards sleep.

"Go," Evie breathed, shooing her friends towards the trapdoor. "Let it be, let it be."

Harry jumped first. Over the sound of her singing they heard him give the all clear, and Ron quickly followed.

"There is still a chance that they will see, there will be an answer, let it be."

Hermione stayed long enough to help Evie over Fluffy's giant paw, before she too jumped.

Evie quickly followed behind Hermione, jumping just as Fluffy began to growl.

Biting back a scream as her stomach dropped, a sickening reminder of the time she fell from Cedric's broom, Evie landed on some sort of cushion. "Oh." Was the only word she could muster as she she tried to gather her surroundings.

"Move!"

She was scrambling before she registered it was Harry who spoke. To her left she saw Hermione standing next to a wall, and she crawled towards her, only to find she was struggling to move.

"What?" The girl finally began to fully comprehend what she'd fallen into. They'd landed on a plant, which had vines that had begun to trap her the moment she landed. She was struggling against the binds, but they only seemed to tighten, even as she lay with her arms on the wet stone floor. Her legs stayed firmly entrapped by the monster plant. "What is this thing?"

"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered. "That's Devil's Snare."

"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called now," Ron snapped.

"What does that mean?" Evie raised her voice over Ron's. Her arms began to ache, but she stilled herself nonetheless. As she glanced back she saw Ron struggling to protect his neck.

"The more you move the faster it'll kill you." Hermione scrunched her face as she tried to recall some lesson. "Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare...what did Professor Sprout say?"

"Hermione, hurry. I can't breathe." Harry winced as the vines tightened around his chest.

"It likes the dark and the damp."

"So light a fire," Harry choked out.

"Right," Hermione chirped before looking around desperately. "But there isn't any wood!"

Evie's arms gave out and she she stared in shock at Hermione. "Seriously?"

"Are you mad?" Ron bellowed behind her. "Are you a witch or not?"

"Right!"

Hermione whipped out her wand and used the same spell she used to set Snape on fire on the Devil's Snare. It immediately uncoiled it's vines from around the three trapped Gryffindors and cringed away from the flames.

Evie, Harry and Ron, detangled themselves and rushed to the far corner of the room, putting as much distance between themselves and the Snare as they could. Harry was taking deep breaths and Ron was rubbing his raw neck. Evie leaned forward to soothe the throbbing in her legs.

"Good thing you pay attention in Herbology," Harry turned to Hermione.

"Good thing you don't panic," Ron countered to Harry.

"'There isn't any wood.'," Evie sighed and shook her head at Hermione, though suddenly the entire thing seemed amusing. Possibly because she was delirious about having not died.

"This way." Harry pointed and led them down a stone corridor.

For a while all they heard was their footsteps and the gentle drip of water. Evie was just beginning to calm down when she felt a sudden anxious jolt. She was confused by the unexpected panic until Ron broke the silence.

"Do you hear something?"

They paused to listen. Rustling and clanking from somewhere ahead of them.

"Ghosts?" Ron shrugged.

"Sounds like wings." Harry shook his head.

"Why would there be birds down here?" Evie asked.

"I think I see a light," Harry responded and they started forward again, coming to an open chamber with a high ceiling and bright lighting. At the opposite end of it was a heavy wooden door and flying through the air were, what looked like brightly colored birds.

"Probably going to attack us if we try to cross, aren't they?" Ron asked.

"Yep, but there's no other choice." Harry started across, covering himself against an onslaught that never came. He tried the door. It was locked.

Ron and Hermione started after him. Evie stayed put, staring at the birds fluttering around above them, trying to figure out why they seemed off.

The door rattled again, still not budging.

"Guys?" Evie called out.

"Alohomora!" Hermione shouted at the door.

"Guys?" Evie called again.

It would be too easy to get through like that. Professor McGonagall had said this was all designed to keep the Stone safe.

"What now?" Ron sighed.

"Guys!" Evie snapped. Three heads turned to her. "Do those birds look a little metallic to you?"

The same three heads swivel to study the metal birds.

"They're not birds!" Harry said excitedly. "They're keys! Which means…" he began surveying the chamber. "Look, brooms. We need to catch the right key to unlock the door."

Evie followed Harry with her eyes as he raced to where the broomsticks sat. Her heart jumped into her throat.

"There are hundreds of them," Hermione lamented. "How do we know which one it is?"

Ron turned to the door once more. "We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one. It'll probably be silver, like the handle." Then he joined Harry by the brooms.

Evie made her way to the door. "I'll wait here." Her voice shook. A searing heat rose in her cheeks. "Once you get the key throw it down to me and I'll open the door."

There were enough brooms for her to help catch the key. She really ought to have been mounting a broom right along with her three best friends, but she couldn't bring herself to move towards them.

"That's a great idea," Harry agreed, locking eyes with her and nodding. "I don't think these other keys will make this easy. We'll probably need to get out as quickly as possible once we have the right one."

"Yeah, if all of us are in the air how're we gonna open the door?" Ron added.

Evie smiled softly at their efforts. She watched them mount the brooms and scanned the flock of keys, looking for the one that would open the door.

For a minute it was just a bunch of mad grabbing and searching as the keys dove and skirted around, making it near impossible for the trio in the air to find the right one. Then Harry, putting those Seeker skills to use, spotted the right key and organized the other two. They cornered it and Harry pinned it against a wall.

The second his hands touched the key, all the other keys synchronized, and barreled straight for him.

"Harry!" Evie screamed from the ground.

Harry shot off, but didn't seem able to get near the ground being chased by the swarm of keys.

"Toss it," Ron called, getting near Harry on his left but still keeping a bit of distance between them.

Harry hurled the key hard enough that it wasn't able to right itself. Ron grabbed it and immediately sped towards the ground. The keys took a moment to turn and give chase, giving Ron time to get some distance between himself and them.

Harry turned and sped towards the ground once he wasn't being chased. He crossed right in front of Ron's path and the redhead tossed the key at him. Harry caught it, and continued flying, straight towards where Evie waited with Hermione to catch the key.

Harry rounded up, tossing the key towards the girls. Evie almost missed it, but managed to hook her finger through one of the back loops and pull it into her. She rushed to the door and tried to gently but quickly unlock the door as the sound of angry bird keys grew closer.

"Got it!" She called over the click of the lock. She pulled the key out and let it fly off. All the other keys disbursed as soon as the door key was released.

Ron and Harry dismounted their brooms and the four quickly left the chamber behind.

The next chamber they enter was much darker at first. When they walked farther in they found themselves standing on a life sized chess board. The pieces were taller than them, and around the edges was what could only be described as a graveyard of pieces.

"What do we do know?" Harry asked

"We're going to have to play across," Ron answered.

"How?" Hermione was looking very nervous. She was not good at Wizard's Chess.

"I think…" Ron started before heading over to one of the black knights. He touched the stone and it sprang to life. The knight looked at him. "Do we...have to join you to get across?"

The knight nodded.

"Evie." Ron turned to her. She went to him. He looked to Harry and Hermione. "No offense, but neither of you are good at chess.

"None taken," Harry responded, though Hermione did look a little offended. "Just tell us what to do."

Ron and Evie deliberated for a moment before reaching an agreement. "Harry, you're going to be that Bishop." Evie pointed.

"Hermione, you're the castle next to him."

"Ron and I will be knights."

The pieces bowed out and the four friends took their places. White moved first and the game began. Together, though Ron took the lead and had final say on all moves, he and Evie pushed the game forward. They got their first shock however, when Evie made a call that let them know how much like Wizard's chess the game was.

"Ron, trust me. If we sacrifice that castle, we'll be free to take that knight."

"Are you sure that's the best move?"

"I think so."

"Then make the call."

Evie did, and the whole group watched as the white queen smashed the castle and dragged it off the board. It seemed much less barbaric on the small chess boards they normally played on. The group was so shaken they hesitated, but the game had to go on or they might all end up like the sacrificed castle.

Finally Ron was muttering, "We're almost there…"

"Ron?" Evie turned to him. She had been at a loss for the last three moves. He always saw so much further ahead of her.

"Let me think." The white queen turned a blank face to him. "Yes, it's the only way."

Slowly Evie caught up. She shook her head.

"I've got to be taken."

"No!" Harry and Hermione yelled in unison.

"That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she'll take me. That leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry."

"But-"

"No," Evie whispered. She had been going through all their possible options, looking for another way. "Ron's right. There is no other way. If any of us move, she'll take us. The game will spiral, and we'll lose."

"Do you want to stop Snape or not?" Ron finished. He was met with resigned silence. "Ready?"

"Do it." Evie nodded.

Ron moved forward. The queen turned to him. She moved quickly, almost eagerly in Evie's mind, to Ron. Evie's heart pounded in her chest as she watched a giant stone hand hit Ron hard across the head. He crashed to the floor. Evie gasped, Hermione screamed, but all three stayed in their squares. The white queen dragged Ron's body across the board and Evie had to remind herself he wasn't dead.

Harry moved three spaces to the left and the white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. The chess pieces parted and bowed to them. Harry and Hermione started forward, but Evie stayed behind.

"What are you doing?" Harry stopped running to wave at her to move.

"Go, I'll get Ron up and we'll go for help."

"We can't do this without you," Harry refused to budge.

"Yes you can, and you will. There isn't any time to argue. We might need help and Ron shouldn't be left alone. Go!"

Hermione nodded, grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him through the door. Evie, though sure her choice was the right one, felt a surprising sort of separation anxiety watching them go. Shaking her head, she turn back to Ron and began using the few healing charms she'd learned to try to revive him.

Right as he began to come around enough to walk with some support, Hermione appeared through the doors she and Harry had just gone.

"What happened? Where's Harry?" Evie questioned, slowly helping Ron to his feet.

"Snape made a room with fire around the doors. The potion to go forward was only enough for one person. He went ahead and I came back to help you get Ron out of here and send Hedwig for Dumbledore."

Evie closed her eyes and sighed. "Alright, let's go. The sooner we get word to Dumbledore, the better chance Harry has."


End file.
